BREAKING NEWS: Court grants Ramaphosa interdict, pauses Phala Phala impeachment
The legal battle follows a Constitutional Court ruling in May that found Parliament had acted unlawfully when it blocked impeachment proceedings.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has won his court bid to temporarily halt Parliament’s impeachment process over the Phala Phala scandal after the Western Cape High Court granted an interim interdict on Friday.
The ruling means the National Assembly’s impeachment committee must suspend its work until Ramaphosa’s review application challenging the findings of the Section 89 independent panel has been heard.
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The judgment was handed down by Judges André le Grange, Matthew Francis and Diane Davis after two days of argument in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town last week.
Ramaphosa approached the court seeking to prevent the impeachment inquiry from proceeding until the court decides whether the Section 89 panel’s findings should be reviewed and set aside.
The panel had previously found that the president had questions to answer over the theft of approximately $580 000 (about R9.6 million) from his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo in February 2020.
In court, Ramaphosa’s legal team argued that allowing the impeachment committee to begin its work before the review application is decided would cause the president “irrefutable harm”.
Delivering judgment, Le Grange said the court had “carefully” considered the arguments presented by all parties before issuing three separate judgments.
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The judge said the first judgment found that Ramaphosa had failed to establish a case.
“It proposes that the application should be dismissed,” Le Grange said.
However, the second and third judgments granted an interim interdict for a limited period.
As a result, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza and the chairperson of Parliament’s impeachment committee have been ordered to halt the committee’s proceedings pending the outcome of Ramaphosa’s review application.
The court postponed a decision on legal costs until after the review application has been finalised.
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“That is our judgment,” Le Grange said.
The legal battle follows a Constitutional Court ruling in May that found Parliament had acted unlawfully when it blocked impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa in December 2022.
That ruling required the National Assembly to establish a 31-member impeachment committee to investigate the allegations further.
The committee is chaired by Rise Mzansi chief organiser Makashule Gana.
Ramaphosa’s review application against the Section 89 panel’s findings is scheduled to be heard in the Western Cape High Court from September 2 to 4.