THABO MOKONE | Gana vows careful pace in impeachment probe

Rise Mzansi chief whip Makashule Gana has a spring in his step, and who can blame him?

This week he was elected chair of the groundbreaking parliamentary committee that will lead impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Gana calls himself the “most hard-working MP” because, as one of only two Rise Mzansi MPs in parliament, he serves on multiple parliamentary committees. These include the portfolio committees on police and transport, the National Assembly programming committee, and the joint committee on ethics.

The impeachment inquiry stems from the Constitutional Court’s judgment last month that found parliament acted unconstitutionally in 2022 when the ANC used its majority to vote against a section 89 independent panel report.

The panel found that Ramaphosa had a prima facie case to answer over the theft of more than $580,000 at his Phala Phala, Bela-Bela, game farm.

When the Sunday Times arrived at Gana’s modest office in the parliamentary precinct this week, it was a hive of activity.

The appointment was for noon, and I arrived right on time. But the 43-year-old MP still had calls to take, and his PA politely asked me to wait a few more minutes.

It’s a daunting task, but I feel ready and prepared for it. You think about contributing to the country and the development of democracy

—  Makashule Gana

I obliged. After all, what was the rush? Gana is probably the most powerful figure in parliament right now, after National Assembly speaker Thoko Didiza.

At the same time, he was responding to incessant text messages while the queue of those seeking his attention — including parliamentary advisers — continued to grow.

Through it all, Gana kept squeezing an orange stress ball.

“Hey, there’s a lot happening. Your life suddenly changes just like that,” he said as we kicked off our conversation.

A qualified mathematician and computer scientist, armed with a BSc degree in both disciplines, Gana admits his new task is formidable.

“It’s a daunting task, but I feel ready and prepared for it. You think about contributing to the country and the development of democracy,” he said.

“Democracy has been good to me, and I have been called upon by my fellow MPs to lead this process, and that’s what I am going to do. I will give it my all because I understand the implications of getting it right for future generations.”

Gana — who first cut his teeth in politics as a DA councillor in Johannesburg before being promoted to the Gauteng legislature as an MPL — recounted how he ended up being elected chair of the impeachment committee this week.

It went down to the wire, with Gana unsure whether he had the support of the two biggest parties on the impeachment committee — the ANC and the DA — until just 10 minutes before the unprecedented meeting began at 2pm on Monday. The uncertainty followed intense lobbying that had started four days earlier.

Gana said he was nominated alongside United Africans Transformation’s Wonderboy Mahlatsi during a closed meeting of the opposition caucus on Monday morning.

“When I left my office at around 1.40pm, I didn’t know what the ANC had decided. I had no idea. I walked into the room, and the chief whip of the ANC was not there. At that point I knew the DA and the IFP were going to support me.

“So when I walked in there, I got the sense that the ANC had agreed on me, because when I greeted them I got the ... feeling they were supporting me. So we got confirmation literally minutes before the meeting. That’s how I got elected.”

Gana, who is also Rise Mzansi’s national organiser, wants the impeachment committee to hold its first meeting before the end of the month to discuss its terms of reference and rules of engagement.

He wants parliament’s legal team to draw lessons from how the section 194 committee that led the impeachment proceedings against former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane conducted its affairs, as well as from the current ad hoc committee probing corruption in the criminal justice system.

“Those legal steps that were missed ... we must not repeat those mistakes. That’s the analysis work that we will start doing once the full support team of the committee is established.

As a leader, you must subject yourself to this process, and when I call you as chairperson, you have to respond positively.

“It’s what in academia they would call a literature review. It will be about reviewing committees of a similar nature — what the success factors were, where committees were found wanting — and that work will be done as soon as the team is in place.

“So for me the important thing is to guide the committee so that we don’t repeat the mistakes that have been made in the past and open ourselves up to legal challenges.”

Gana has also made clear that the president — along with senior government officials such as Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago and public protector Kholeka Gcaleka, among others — may have to appear before the impeachment committee.

“As a leader, you must subject yourself to this process, and when I call you as chairperson, you have to respond positively. The institutions that have investigated this matter will have to present themselves.

“For me, you need to get to the bottom of what happened and assess whether, having spoken to everyone, the committee is of the opinion that the president has seriously violated the constitution. That’s what we must do, based on facts. It’s not about my feelings.

“For me, this committee is a first for the country, and it will definitely be studied by future generations, so it has to be solid, and we have to be legally compliant at all times. And my success in that regard is not whether the National Assembly votes one way or the other. It is whether I am able to contribute to South Africa’s democratic development.”

He argues that the impeachment committee should neither rush its work nor allow unnecessary delays.

“Being a marathon runner and having run the Comrades, there are stages of the race where you go fast and those where you go slower. So I need to use that approach. Where we need to expedite the process, we will do so. Where we need to move a bit slower to stay on the right side of the law, we will do so.”

Born in 1983 to a single mother who has since died, Gana was a rural boy who became an urbanite living in Johannesburg.

He was born in Lefara village, outside Tzaneen in Limpopo, the hometown of ANC deputy police minister Cassel Mathale, the former premier of the province.

Prior to joining the DA in 2002, Gana was a member of the South African Students’ Congress and the ANC Youth League at the then University of the North, now the University of Limpopo.

“My politics took off when I got to Turfloop. Others call it the university of politics. I started in student politics and then joined the Youth League,” said the father of two.

“In Tzaneen I worked with the now deputy minister of police, Cassel. We come from the same area and know each other very well.”

It was at the “university of politics” that Gana obtained his BSc in mathematics and computer science.

The qualification enabled him to work as a software developer in the banking sector.

“Then I went to Wits Business School, where I did a diploma in management. Then I went on to do a BA in politics, philosophy and economics through Unisa. After that, I completed an honours degree in economics through Unisa, and I am currently studying towards a master’s in economics at the University of Mpumalanga.

“Before I entered politics full-time, I worked in banking. I started at Absa in software development, then went to FNB and later returned to Absa. So before I became an MP in 2014 I was working at Absa.”

In his spare time, the Orlando Pirates diehard also doubles as a DJ, although he has not been spinning discs for the past five years because of his hectic schedule.

“I have not played in five years or so, but I still have the equipment. I still enjoy listening and I still go to sessions. I’d love to play a set again one day. Maybe this committee might be the thing that drives me back to playing sets again.

“It’s a life that I enjoyed a lot. It was also my refuge, so I would love to go back to DJing one day. But there’s also Comrades to run on June 14. That’s very important.

“But Orlando Pirates — it’s more than a football club.”