Cape Town - Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba says the Phala Phala saga is far from over and that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s credibility has “suffered”.
Makgoba joined a chorus of criticism after the rejection of the Section 89 panel report by a majority of MPs in Parliament.
“Democracy is messy and today’s vote in Parliament still leaves the country and the governing party with deep moral and ethical challenges,” Archbishop Makgoba said in a statement.
“While we have to subject ourselves to the democratic process, and accept Parliament's vote, this saga is not yet over.”
He said the country had yet to hear from the National Prosecuting Authority, SA Revenue Service and the SA Reserve Bank.
“Whatever happens, President Ramaphosa’s credibility has suffered a blow and he will have to re-earn the trust of South Africans,” Archbishop Makgoba said.
“Going forward, I hope politicians will devote as much energy and passion as they have to Phala Phala to creating conditions conducive to creating jobs, ending inequality and boosting our energy supplies. If they do not, they will be made to pay for it at the polls.”
Opposition leader DA MP John Steenhuisen described the vote as “shattering (the) myth of ANC renewal”.
He said the ANC’s move to block the Phala Phala report from being tabled proves that the party “has not changed its undemocratic behaviour in the wake of State Capture and the Zondo Report”.
He vowed that, as the DA did throughout the former president Jacob Zuma years, they would exhaust all resources and avenues to hold Ramaphosa to account.
“This fight has only just begun,” Steenhuisen said in a statement. “What the ANC has perhaps not yet realised is that the blocking of the report in Parliament today was a Pyrrhic victory for them, in that it shattered the myth around the party’s so-called renewal,” Steenhuisen said.
“South Africans were left in no doubt that the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa is no different to the presidency of Jacob Zuma, and that both men would not hesitate to damage and weaken Parliament in order to evade scrutiny and the law.
“If the ANC believes it can act in this way without electoral consequences, 2024 is going to teach them some tough lessons indeed.”
IFP MP Elphas Buthelezi said: “Regardless of whether (a) right course of action will be defeated by the president’s party, and regardless of the outcome of the next process, something has been broken that cannot be fixed. South Africa’s trust in the president is irrevocably damaged.”
He said the trust was placed in Ramaphosa’s “New Dawn” promise of an honest leadership. “Now we are left asking: Is there any among them that is beyond reproach?
“The temptation is to say, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. For many of us, President Ramaphosa was the only hope we had in the ANC. He stood against the faction that is fighting to impose radical economic transformation at any cost – in truth, at the cost of our economy’s survival.
“If the president is not exonerated, we fear what will come next. Looking at the possible outcomes, it is clear that we should expect the worst.”
Buthelezi said it was clear that there were no leaders to be trusted in the ANC.
“I know the pain of the IFP’s founder (Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi), who served that great liberation movement until it abandoned its founding principles,” Buthelezi said.
“It placed itself on a path towards a terrible destination. Tragically, that destination has been reached.
“Whatever becomes of this latest stain on the ruling party, we the people have been utterly betrayed.”