The Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, said the panel headed by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo set the “bar too low” to remove a sitting president.
Lamola used Tuesday’s debate on the Section 89 report to criticise the independent panel’s report, saying it failed to provide sufficient evidence.
He said the question before the house was whether members were convinced that the panel established that there was sufficient evidence of either serious misconduct or a serious violation of the law.
The minister said without the relevant evidence, Parliament could not proceed with an impeachment inquiry.
Lamola questioned the lack of evidence in the report and the failure of the panel to establish facts.
“How do we then adopt this report that did not conclude to get sufficient evidence to start the process to impeach a sitting president? The panel’s report has set the bar too low to impeach a sitting president.
“The evidence must be there. It must be concrete. There must be no doubt that this evidence is here and is sufficient to commence this process of impeachment. We do not have that sufficient evidence.”
The minister and Members of Parliament from other smaller parties such as the GOOD Party, African Christian Democratic Party, Congress of the People, and Al Jama-ah rejected the adoption of the report.
However, major opposition parties like the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supported it.
-EWN
In other news – Halala! Ex-Minister Malusi Gigaba getting married for the third time
Former Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, Malusi Gigaba is set to get married for the third time, according to Zimoja.
The 51-year-old politician, who has also held office as the Minister of Public Enterprise, is said to have paid lobola for his Eswatini fiancée, Nomfundo Fakudze. The publication reports that Gigaba sent his uncles to the Kingdom of Eswatini in Manzini this past weekend. Learn More