National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says the independent panel set up to investigate the Phala Phala saga involving President Cyril Ramaphosa will have 30 days to complete its work.

Mapisa-Nqakula is waiting on political parties in Parliament to nominate candidates to serve on the panel. They will be expected to decide whether Ramaphosa will be subject to a process that may lead to his removal from office.

This emerged during Thursday's meeting of the National Assembly's Programming Committee.

Political parties have been requested to submit names to serve on the panel by 1 September.

Mapisa-Nqakula said according to the rules, the process after the appointment will take about 30 days.

"Once the panel has been announced and appointed, that panel will have 30 days to do its work and present a recommendation to my office. We have up to 1 September to make submissions. On 2 September, we may be announcing the panel, and they will start their work. The panel has 30 days from the date of the announcement," she said.

Earlier this month, Mapisa-Nqakula referred to an independent panel the African Transformation Movement's (ATM) call for Parliament to set up an inquiry into the Phala Phala saga.

Section 89 of the Constitution provides for the National Assembly to remove a president of the republic from office on the grounds of either serious violation of the Constitution or the law, serious misconduct, or an inability to perform the functions of office.

"Once the Speaker has received all the names, which will be more than three names, the Speaker has then to select the three [names] out of the many names that have been submitted. From there, we must establish the availability of the selected names. It could very well happen that a particular name (person) is not available, then we need to go to the next name (person). We will try and speed up that process and finalise procurement issues," said Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso.

Xaso also said the terms of reference have already been clarified.

Former spy boss Arthur Fraser alleged in June that at least $4-million was stolen from the farm in February 2020 and that, subsequent to the theft, off-the-books means were used to try to locate the culprits and the money.

News24 recently reported that burglars stole an estimated $600 000 in cash from Ramaphosa's farmhouse – far less than the millions of dollars that were initially speculated to have been taken.

So far, Ramaphosa has not answered any questions on the Phala Phala matter, and he has maintained that due process should be followed.

In a separate move, eight opposition political parties backed a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa.