Section 89 committee withdraws Madonsela recommendation after Ramaphosa objects

Parliament's impeachment committee has withdrawn its recommendation for Adv. Thandazani Madonsela SC to lead the Phala Phala inquiry, two weeks after President Cyril Ramaphosa objected to the nomination. The committee voted 18 to 9 on Tuesday to revoke its decision from last month and immediately reopened the nomination process, giving political parties until Friday to submit fresh names.

Madonsela had been recommended to Parliament by the committee, but Ramaphosa lodged his objection before the appointment could be finalized. Committee chair Makashule Gana stated that Parliament's legal services had discovered that Madonsela had not explicitly disclosed the ANC as his client in previous legal work. Members who initially supported Madonsela's nomination expressed that they would have taken a different stance had they known about this undisclosed connection.

Gana, when asked if he saw the president dictating the terms, responded that they do not, and emphasized that any communication received by the committee is reviewed by legal services. Ramaphosa wrote a letter to the committee two weeks ago, challenging Madonsela's suitability due to his past work for the ANC and his removal from the Judicial Service Commission in 2022.

Opposition parties maintained that Madonsela's work for the ANC had been known beforehand and did not warrant disqualification. They affirmed Madonsela's integrity and contended that the alleged grievances were not sufficient grounds for his exclusion. The DA, EFF, ActionSA, Build One SA, African Transformation Movement, and United Africans Transformation supported the original recommendation.

ANC MP Cameron Dugmore raised concerns that the advice came from the party's head office rather than the parliamentary study group, as Madonsela's correspondence suggested. The impeachment committee convenes again on September 8 to select a new nominee. The committee is scheduled to meet the day before a Western Cape High Court hearing where Ramaphosa is seeking to challenge the section 89 independent panel report.

Gana clarified that the committee is not involved in this case and hinted that an interim interdict barring public hearings would disappear upon the court's ruling, regardless of the outcome. The committee was established following the Constitutional Court's ruling on May 8 that invalidated a National Assembly rule and invalidated the assembly's decision not to forward the independent panel report to the impeachment committee.

Gana highlighted that the committee had been working on the process for three months and was more than 80% complete with its tasks. MP John Hlophe, leader of the MK Party, declared Madonsela a man of integrity and dismissed the notion that Ramaphosa's displeasure should nullify his nomination. He went on to say that the ANC's continued involvement in the investigation posed a challenge, but the committee remained focused on its mandate.