A court in South Africa has ordered a halt to impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over the controversial Phala Phala cash theft case.
In a ruling on Friday July 24, the Western Cape High Court stated that Parliament must suspend the impeachment process until the president’s legal challenge to an earlier parliamentary report has been resolved. However, the court said the impeachment committee may continue with preparatory work while the case is still pending.
Throwback
The scandal centres on the theft of more than $580,000 in cash from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm in the year 2020. The money was reportedly hidden inside a sofa, raising questions about why such a large amount of cash was kept at the property.
Investigators are also examining the source of the money, whether the foreign currency was legally declared, and why the theft was not immediately reported to the police.
In June, South African lawmakers launched impeachment proceedings, after a parliamentary panel concluded there was enough evidence for Ramaphosa to answer questions over his handling of the incident. The president has challenged those findings in court, arguing that the report should first be reviewed before Parliament moves ahead with impeachment.
Following Friday’s ruling, Ramaphosa’s office welcomed the decision and said the president remains committed to cooperating with all accountability processes while respecting the country’s judicial system.
The Phala Phala controversy has been one of the biggest political challenges of Ramaphosa’s presidency since he took office in 2018. Earlier this year, South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that the parliamentary report was valid, clearing the way for impeachment proceedings despite previous efforts by the governing African National Congress (ANC) to block them.