South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s impeachment is scheduled to be resumed after Court determined parliament’s decision to stop it was unconstitutional.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that Parliament acted unlawfully in 2022 by blocking an inquiry into the “Phala Phala” farm scandal.
The Presidency has stated it respects the judgment and that the president “maintains that no person is above the law”
With this latest development, Parliament is required to establish an impeachment committee to review the evidence regarding the 2020 theft of foreign currency from Ramaphosa’s farmhouse.
Details of the scandal allege that Ramaphosa concealed the theft of, and failed to account for, a large sum of US dollars (reportedly between (U$580,000) and U$$4million) ) stored in a sofa at his farm home.
Ramaphosa avoided impeachment proceedings in 2022 after his governing African National Congress (ANC) party used its parliamentary majority to reject a recommendation by an independent panel that he face an inquiry into the theft of a large sum of cash from his farmhouse two years earlier.
The scandal, dubbed “Farmgate”, sparked accusations that he had failed to properly account for the source of the money hidden in a sofa.
A successful impeachment requires a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Even though the ANC lost its outright majority in 2024, it remains the largest party in the current coalition government, and analysts suggest the president may still survive the vote.
