Makashule Gana, one of Rise Mzansi’s two Members of Parliament, has been elected as the chair of the committee that will consider whether President Cyril Ramaphosa should face impeachment.

The African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA) both supported Gana’s chairmanship. He was proposed by an ANC MP, Mikateko Mahlaule, and seconded by the DA’s chief whip, George Michalakis.

Gana was challenged by United Africans Transformation (UAT) MP Wonderboy Mahlatsi, who was nominated by Omphile Maotwe of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and seconded by Nqabayomzi Kwankwa of the United Democratic Movement (UDM).

Gana won 19 votes, while Mahlatsi secured 12 votes.

The ANC holds nine of the 31 seats on the impeachment committee, followed by the DA with five, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) with three, and the EFF with two.

All other parties represented in Parliament have one seat on the committee, with the exceptions of GOOD and the Pan Africanist Congress, as their only MPs are also Cabinet ministers.

The voting largely split along the lines of the Government of National Unity (GNU), with parties in the GNU voting for Gana and parties outside of the GNU supporting Mahlatsi. The exception was the UDM which, despite its leader Bantu Holomisa being a deputy minister, voted for Mahlatsi.

The voting is broken down as follows:

The committee will now determine whether Ramaphosa has a case to answer regarding the theft of a large amount of foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm in 2020. The committee could recommend impeachment to Parliament, which will need a two-thirds majority to pass. However, a motion of no confidence could also be tabled, and this faces a much lower threshold, as it only needs a simple majority to pass. Any recommendation from the committee is also not binding, so even if the committee recommended impeachment, for example, Parliament would not be bound by that recommendation.

Ramaphosa has said that he will take the initial report, which said he has a case to answer, on judicial review. There has been speculation that Ramaphosa will follow the lead of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, who, when faced with legal problems, embarked on a “Stalingrad” strategy, whereby a case is kept from being heard as long as possible, thorough legal appeals. It has taken practically a quarter of a century for a case against Zuma’s involvement in corruption around the infamous Arms Deal of the late 1990s to be heard.