Johannesburg - With only two seats in parliament, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) leader Vuyolwethu Zungula has become the proverbial David of the biblical David vs Goliath scripture. This follows the section 89 independent panel report which found that President Cyril Ramaphosa had a prima facie case to answer on the Phala Phala farm robbery debacle.
On social media and other platforms, many expressed that if it were not for the role played by the ATM leader, who was the first to call for the Section 89 inquiry, it would not have been instituted.
Following Arthur Fraser’s criminal complaints laid against President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Rosebank police station on June 1, Zungula and his party began a concerted effort to hold Ramaphosa accountable.
In July, he became successful in invoking Section 89 (1) of the Constitution and National Assembly Rule 129 (A) to remove Ramaphosa from office on the grounds of serious misconduct and violation of the law.
Zungula’s argument was that Ramaphosa had violated his oath of office as well as the constitution after he concealed the farm robbery and admitted to dealing in game farms, which exposed him to a conflict of interest between his public and private interests.
The party that has been at the forefront of the Section 89 inquiry highlighted that Ramaphosa had publicly acknowledged that the sales of game were a commercial transaction, in contravention of his oath of office.
Over the intervening months, the ATM led the charge against the "Ankole" and worked tirelessly with other opposition parties in parliament to hold Ramaphosa accountable for the Phala Phala farm scandal.
Their call for the Section 89 inquiry was given a boost after national assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula announced in August that she had referred a proposed motion by the ATM to a yet-to-be convened independent panel of experts to assess whether sufficient evidence existed to show Ramaphosa committed any of the violations specified in the motion.
It was only on September 14 that the speaker announced that she would consider the names of 17 nominees from opposition political parties, who had each put forward their preferred candidates to be considered.
Mapisa-Nqakula subsequently announced retired Chief Justice Ngcobo as the chairperson of the panel, alongside Richard Calland and Judge Thokozile Masipa as members of his independent panel.
Following an outcry that Calland would not be objective, the speaker replaced him with advocate Mahlape Sello. All this time, the ATM indicated that it had faith in the three experts and was confident that it would be vindicated once the report had been finalised.
In October, the three-member panel began its work of going through documentary evidence submitted by all the opposition parties in parliament, and the ATM made sure its submission was rock-solid.
It appears to be another biblical text that when Zungula founded the party in 2018 on the ideology of Christianity and conservatism, few people paid attention to the party or its leader.
This is because the country has in the past had flash-in-the pan parties and other parties agitating for Christian values.
However, within months of its establishment, ATM proved to be a different beast, much like David was to Goliath. The party quickly climbed up the ladder and in parliament after winning two seats in the national assembly after contesting its first elections in 2019.
Since then, the David vs Goliath comparison has become part of this young party’s DNA. Zungula became the youngest member of the cabinet and youngest leader of a political party at just 34 years of age as of 2022.
On Wednesday, the party welcomed the report from the panel, but continued to push for the next big thing, which is to see that next week's debate and vote for Ramaphosa’s impeachment is one by way of a secret ballot.
"So, what we are going to do is that we are going to request the Speaker that the consideration must be done by means of a secret ballot next week.
"That is the only way in which we are going to guarantee that members will indeed vote with their conscience and there is nothing that is going to happen to the members should they decide to defy their party instructions," Zungula said.
The Star