Ramaphosa launches his next fight
President Cyril Ramaphosa will ask a high court to overturn a report that forms the basis of impeachment proceedings against him over his handling of a burglary at his game farm.
The Western Cape High Court on Wednesday began hearing Ramaphosa’s application to review and set aside the 2022 report by an independent panel headed by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo.
The panel found prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have committed serious violations of the constitution and the law in his handling of the theft of foreign currency that had been hidden in a sofa at his ranch.
The court challenge may determine whether lawmakers proceed with the impeachment process.
The president has denied wrongdoing and argues that the judicial panel misconstrued its mandate, relied on hearsay and applied the wrong legal threshold.
The case has revived a scandal that threatened Ramaphosa’s presidency in 2022. Parliament — then controlled by the African National Congress party that he leads — voted 214-148 against proceeding with an impeachment inquiry after the report was released.
The Constitutional Court overturned that decision in May, finding that lawmakers acted unlawfully by using a rule that allowed them to terminate the process without a substantive inquiry.
It ordered that the matter proceed to an impeachment committee.
Ramaphosa won a temporary reprieve in July, when the Western Cape court barred the committee from holding public impeachment hearings pending a ruling on his review application.
The panel can continue preparatory work.
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