Speaker Thoko Didiza speaking to journalists on Friday morning.

• National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza says President Cyril Ramaphosa has not asked Parliament to stop impeachment proceedings, but merely informed her of his intention to approach the courts.
• Parliament will await Ramaphosa’s court application, obtain legal advice, and continue with steps to implement a Constitutional Court ruling on impeachment rules.
• Didiza says there is no cause for concern about Parliament’s ability to fulfil its constitutional duties as the process unfolds.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has merely informed Parliament of his intention to approach the courts and has not requested anything further, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza has said.

She said Parliament would wait for Ramaphosa’s court application, seek legal advice, and then respond, adding that there was no cause for concern about its ability to fulfil its constitutional duties.

Didiza was doorstopped by journalists on Friday morning as she arrived to deliver an address at the parliamentary dome at a colloquium marking 30 years of the Constitution.

Two weeks ago, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the EFF and ordered that Parliament’s rules be made effective to hold the president accountable for the Phala Phala saga, effectively reopening an impeachment process against Ramaphosa that had been halted by the ANC majority in 2022.

The court also set aside a National Assembly rule that allowed MPs to vote on whether to proceed with an impeachment inquiry after an independent panel report.

READ | Ramaphosa asks top judges for consent to serve papers on impeachment panel members

Didiza said Parliament has complied with the Constitutional Court’s judgment. The independent panel’s report – which found a prima facie case against the president – has been tabled and sent to Ramaphosa, and a process is under way to appoint an impeachment committee. The names of parties’ representatives to this committee should reach Didiza’s office on Friday.

She said:

Ramaphosa subsequently indicated that he would take the independent panel’s report under review.

Asked whether there had been correspondence from the president’s office, seeking anything, for instance, a stay of the impeachment proceedings, Didiza said: “No, the president isn’t seeking anything. He was informing me, formally, as he said, on [13 May] to the nation, he has listened to the judgment, and he respects the rule of the law, and he will exercise his right.”

She said the ruling gave him this space.

She said once Ramaphosa’s papers had been served, Parliamentary legal services would advise how the legislature should respond.

“And, you would appreciate, that actually, the court case [before the Constitutional Court] was about Parliament, and how Parliament did not follow its processes in accordance with the rules. That was the case. And, I think, it is important that all of us as South Africans appreciate what the matters in court were about.”

READ | Most parties want to proceed with Phala Phala impeachment, but ANC in no ‘rush-rush’

On Thursday evening, a subcommittee of the National Assembly Rules Committee met to discuss the rule changes required by the Constitutional Court ruling.

During this meeting, DA parliamentary leader George Michalakis asked whether the Speaker could preside over the process if she had met with the president’s legal advisors.

Michalakis said he wrote to Didiza to ask whether she had met with Ramaphosa’s legal advisors, and, tellingly, she didn’t deny it. He said it seemed clear from her response that she did meet with them.

He said they need legal clarity, as it could be grounds for challenging the impeachment process.

Subcommittee chairperson, ANC MP Doris Mpapane, said she was “quite disturbed” by the turn the meeting took, as she didn’t think the issue about the Speaker was core to the committee’s business. ANC MP Mikateko Mahlaule also objected to this issue being raised.

On Friday morning, Didiza said she was not sure where Michalakis was coming from.

“I haven’t met [with] the president’s lawyers,” said Didiza. She said they would confirm it.

Responding to the SABC’s report that she was seen at Luthuli House on Monday, Didiza said Mondays are reserved for parliamentarians to do party work.

“So, we do our party work. And all of us have party offices. I’m sure when Michalakis goes to the DA party office, none of us can ask him, ‘what were you discussing at the office?’” she said.