South Africa’s highest court has dealt a crushing blow to presidential immunity by ordering Parliament to revive a stalled impeachment probe into Cyril Ramaphosa’s deeply controversial Phala Phala farm conduct.
The judgment, handed down at Constitutional Hill in Braamfontein after an agonising seventeen month wait, invalidates the National Assembly’s 2022 decision to bury an independent panel report brimming with evidence of potential executive misconduct.
Chief Justice Mandisa Maya found that Rule 129 of the impeachment procedures gave lawmakers irrational discretion to override independent findings, rendering the December vote unconstitutional.
The Farm Heist And Panel Findings
A winter night in February 2020 changed the trajectory of the Ramaphosa presidency when thieves targeted his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo and extracted a fortune in foreign banknotes stashed inside sofas and cupboards.
The amount, reported to be around five hundred and eighty thousand dollars, was never declared to the South African Revenue Service and its existence only became public knowledge long after the break-in occurred.
Ramaphosa insisted the money was legitimate payment from Sudanese businessman Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim Hazim for twenty buffalo, but the panel chaired by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo noted that the animals remained grazing on the property more than two years later while no tax records corroborated the sale.
The Ngcobo panel delivered a blistering assessment, finding prima facie evidence that the President may have committed serious constitutional violations including undisclosed foreign currency of doubtful origin, active involvement in a private business in potential breach of Section 96(2)(a) of the Constitution, failure to report the theft to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation as required by PRECCA, and abuse of office through a secret, unofficial investigation that included requesting assistance from the President of Namibia to apprehend a suspect.
Parliament Blocks The Impeachment Report
On 13 December 2022, the National Assembly voted 214 to 148 to reject the panel’s recommendation that a full impeachment inquiry should proceed, with the governing party using its then majority to close ranks around the President.
ATM parliamentary leader Vuyo Zungula had argued that lawmakers failed in their oversight role by refusing to allow deeper scrutiny of the executive.
“The only rational thing to do would be to further scrutinise,” Zungula said.
The Economic Freedom Fighters refused to accept the outcome and launched a constitutional challenge, arguing that Rule 129 of the National Assembly’s impeachment procedures granted members unconstitutional discretion to override independent findings and defeat the purpose of executive accountability.
The Constitutional Court ultimately agreed, ruling that the National Assembly’s vote was irrational and inconsistent with the Constitution, and the matter will now return to Parliament for fresh consideration.
Police Failures And Secret Investigations
Earlier this year, the declassified Independent Police Investigative Directorate report exposed startling law enforcement failures linked to the Phala Phala matter.
IPID national head of investigations Thuso Keefelakae confirmed that their probe uncovered official misconduct.
“Our investigation found that there were some transgressions.”
Chief among the findings was the conduct of Major General W.P. Rhoode, who still heads the Presidential Protection Unit despite his central role in the aftermath of the burglary.
“Major General W.P. Rhoode failed to register or ensure that a case docket of housebreaking and theft was opened.”
Instead of following standard procedure, Rhoode allegedly spearheaded an off the books operation to recover the stolen funds, using state resources, falsifying travel documentation, and invoking the President’s name to evade scrutiny.
When confronted with these revelations, Ramaphosa distanced himself from the operational decisions.
“I had nothing to do with it,” he said. “So that is a process, as I’ve always said, processes must play themselves out, and all these matters are being handled by the right institutions, and we must allow those institutions to handle those matters.”
Political Parties Respond To The Ruling
EFF leader Julius Malema addressed a large crowd of supporters outside the Constitutional Court building in Braamfontein shortly after Chief Justice Mandisa Maya delivered the judgment jointly brought by the EFF and the ATM.
Malema insisted that a responsible head of state would step down rather than cling to office while facing impeachment proceedings.
“With this judgment, if we had a responsible president, he should be resigning, as you cannot have a president who is preparing for an impeachment process this side and occupying the office at the same time, because one is going to suffer.
“Remember that even if he resigns, he must still come for impeachment,” Malema said.
Malema also challenged the Democratic Alliance to demonstrate consistency now that the party shares power with the ANC in the Government of National Unity.
“Let us see the hands of the DA, which was with us when we impeached, now that they are eating bananas and apples, let us see if they will be able to talk with their full mouths,” he said.
The EFF leader reserved special praise for former cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who broke ranks with the ANC to support the report in the 2022 ballot.
“She acted alone against her own comrades because her conscience was very clear and she was using her conscience as guided by the then Chief Justice that parliamentarians must be guided by their conscience and not by party lines,” Malema told the media.
ATM spokesperson Zama Ntshona warned that resignation would rob the country of critical answers.
“The impeachment process can only be done if the president is a sitting president because once he resigns, we will not be able to impeach him and that is going to deprive us as a country of the important answers that we want,” he said.
Ntshona demanded that Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka explain her earlier clearance of Ramaphosa, given the panel’s contrary findings.
“I would like to know how the Public Protector did not see that having US$580 000 was a problem.
“The Public Protector that must answer is Gcaleka, who said there was nothing wrong with what President Ramaphosa did,” said Ntshona.
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis issued a statement promising his party would not shield executive wrongdoing.
“The court has now made clear that Parliament must correct its rules, and that the Section 89 report must proceed to an impeachment committee. We will never be a party to protecting misconduct, covering up corruption, or weakening accountability for political convenience,” he said in a statement released immediately after the ruling.
Hill-Lewis added that his party would approach the forthcoming committee with constitutional diligence.
“The DA will participate fully and constructively in the impeachment committee. We will be guided by the facts, by the evidence placed before the committee, and by our constitutional duty,” Hill-Lewis.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu cautioned against premature conclusions about impeachment.
“I will suggest that the matter of possible impeachment of the president, if it does happen, will have a very slim fit considering the calibre of the president that South Africa has at this point,” said Bhengu.
Bhengu stressed that the governing party would study the judgment carefully while maintaining faith in Ramaphosa’s leadership.
“At this point in history, we are not going to back down on that, as we are going to respect the judgment, study the judgment, and make amends where we need to make amends.
“The fact that we went to the liberation Struggle was because we wanted the country to be run according to the rule of law, and therefore, there is no way we are going against that which we fought for,” said Bhengu.
“Because we are subject to the Constitution, we came to this point where our president had to be tested in this manner.
“The same president who has stabilised South Africa for the longest time, the same president acclaimed worldwide for leading global peace efforts.
“We will continue to have the same confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa, but we are going to make sure, as the ANC, that we follow the law to the letter,” she said.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya released a brief statement calling for national respect of the judicial process.
“President Ramaphosa has been consistent in providing his full assistance to the various enquiries into this matter. President Ramaphosa maintains that no person is above the law and that any allegations should be subjected to due process without fear, favour or prejudice,”