A South African court on Friday ruled in favour of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid to suspend impeachment proceedings against him over a scandal involving half-a-million dollars hidden in a sofa at his ranch.
Ramaphosa had asked the Western Cape High Court to halt the work of a parliamentary impeachment committee pending his review of a November 2022 report which found that he “may have committed” serious violations and misconduct.
“Pending the determination by this court of the applicant’s review… respondents are interdicted from proceeding with a public impeachment hearing,” Judge Andre le Grange ruled.
The president is accused of concealing from police and tax authorities a 2020 break-in and theft of $580,000 at his luxury Phala Phala farmhouse in the northern Limpopo province. He has denied any wrongdoing and ruled out resigning, insisting he reported the break-in to police and that the money came from the sale of 20 buffaloes.
The complaint was laid by a former spy boss and one-time ally of Ramaphosa’s predecessor, Jacob Zuma, who alleged the president hid a robbery of $4 million from the authorities.
Following the ruling, and after criticism from opposition parties that he was dodging accountability, Ramaphosa said he “reaffirms his respect of judicial independence and separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.” A statement added: “The President will continue to cooperate with and abide by processes of accountability.”
Should the proceedings eventually go ahead, they would be the first impeachment of a sitting South African president. The court will in September hear Ramaphosa’s bid to overturn the 2022 independent panel report that found he may have a case to answer.
That report was earlier rejected in a National Assembly vote, where Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress held a majority, quashing the move to open impeachment proceedings. Although the public prosecutor dropped the charges in 2024, the Constitutional Court overturned the parliamentary vote in May this year, paving the way for the parliamentary impeachment committee.
Source: Vanguard.
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