President Cyril Ramaphosa has responded to the Western Cape High Court\u2019s ruling on Friday (24 July), granting his urgent application to interdict parliament’s impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramaphosa noted the ruling, adding that his application was not a means to get in the way of parliament’s duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He reaffirmed his respect for judicial independence and the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said he would continue to cooperate with and abide by accountability processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the president brought the case on an urgent basis to ensure that he would not be prejudiced by parliament proceeding with the impeachment committee while his challenge to the committee’s basis was still pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had argued to the court that the process could cause him harm and that he would be “humiliated” by the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court accepted this and interdicted parliament from proceeding with the public impeachment hearings until the base challenge had been finalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The High Court is scheduled to hear the case from 2 September to 4 September, while Ramaphosa has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramaphosa is seeking to overturn a judicial panel\u2019s finding that his handling of the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in a couch at his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo province was unlawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He contends that the process was initiated due to errors by an advisory panel, which concluded that he may have committed serious violations related to a robbery at his wildlife farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In documents submitted to the Western Cape High Court on 26 May, Ramaphosa requested that the court review and dismiss the panel\u2019s 2022 report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He argued that the panel\u2019s conclusions were based on hearsay and did not follow proper procedures. Furthermore, he asked for any related parliamentary actions to be suspended until the review is resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the panel indicated that Ramaphosa might have breached the constitution and his oath of office, he has consistently asserted his innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Independent investigations conducted by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and South African Reserve Bank (SARB) found no indication that the president had violated any laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said the party accepts the latest judgment; however, he said it does not clear the president of anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The judgment does not decide whether the allegations arising from Phala Phala are true, nor does it clear the President of wrongdoing,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It determines the order in which the judicial and parliamentary processes must unfold.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DA, a party to the Government of National Unity that elected Ramaphosa as president with the Phala Phala saga hanging over his head, did not join opposition parties in challenging the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parties that opposed Ramaphosa’s interdict bid\u2014EFF, MK, and other smaller parties\u2014had argued that the interdict would cross the separation of powers by usurping parliament’s powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also argued that interdicting the parliamentary process would run against the Constitutional Court ruling that forced the impeachment process to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MK party responded to the ruling, saying they were disappointed but not surprised by the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The party accused the judiciary of protecting the president, and said that they would study the judgment and look to take the matter back to the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Cyril Ramaphosa has responded to the Western Cape High Court interdicting parliament’s impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":866807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2080602397340991522","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2061,1916,12501],"class_list":["post-867392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-democratic-alliance","tag-parliament","tag-ramaphosa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867395,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867392\/revisions\/867395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}