A South African court has ordered a temporary halt to impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a scandal involving the theft of more than $580,000 in cash from his private farm in 2020.
The Western Cape High Court delivered its judgment on Friday, granting Ramaphosa’s application to pause the proceedings until his separate legal challenge to an underlying parliamentary report is resolved. The ruling does not prevent the impeachment committee from continuing other preparatory work.
Lawmakers began impeachment proceedings in June after a parliamentary panel concluded that the president had a case to answer over his handling of the theft. Among the central questions was why such large sums of cash were stored in a sofa at his farm in Limpopo province.
The inquiry has also focused on the source of the money, whether the foreign currency involved was legally declared, and why Ramaphosa did not immediately report the theft to police.
The president’s office welcomed the judgment and said he would “cooperate with and abide by processes of accountability.” It added that Ramaphosa “reaffirms his respect of judicial independence and separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.”
The affair, widely known as the “Phala Phala” or “Farmgate” scandal, has been one of the most persistent political challenges of Ramaphosa’s presidency since he took office in 2018. It nearly cost him the leadership of the governing African National Congress in 2022.
The matter has moved through South Africa’s highest courts. Earlier this year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the parliamentary report was valid and that impeachment proceedings could go ahead, after the ANC had earlier won a parliamentary vote to block them.
Disputes over the reach of legislative oversight and the boundaries of judicial review have surfaced in several democracies, echoing tensions seen in cases such as recent legal battles over investigative subpoenas targeting senior officials elsewhere.
The impeachment committee includes representatives from all political parties represented in Parliament, ensuring the process retains a multi-party character even as the legal challenges proceed.
The proceedings will remain suspended pending the outcome of Ramaphosa’s review of the parliamentary report. A final resolution of that challenge will determine whether the impeachment inquiry resumes in full.