Ramaphosa weighs legal options after Phala Phala ruling

President Cyril Ramaphosa is weighing his legal options after Friday’s Constitutional Court ruling that parliament must reopen impeachment proceedings over his handling of the theft of cash from his game farm. Resignation, however, is reportedly not under consideration.

The issue is expected to top the agenda at a meeting of senior ANC officials on Monday.

The apex court ruled that parliament should set up an impeachment committee to consider findings by an independent panel that Ramaphosa has a case to answer over the theft of $580,000 hidden in a sofa at his Phala Phala game farm.

The Constitutional Court found parliament failed to follow due process by not considering the facts of the report when it voted against the panel’s recommendation to conduct an impeachment inquiry.

“The president is weighing his options right now in accordance with the law,” a source in the presidency told Business Day.

Lawson Naidoo, director of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said one option would be for the president to launch a high court review application of the independent panel report, which his legal team has previously asked the Constitutional Court to set aside.

The 2022 Constitutional Court review application failed on jurisdictional grounds and could readily be revived in the high court.

“Were he to do that, it would tie parliament’s hands, because the very report it is looking at is subject to judicial review,” he said.

Alternatively, Naidoo continued, the president could allow parliament’s proceedings for an impeachment inquiry to unfold.

Such a process is unlikely to conclude before the local government elections scheduled for November 4.

“All of the parties in parliament will want to use the occasion to grandstand,” he said.

Reserve Bank report

Political analyst and former ANC MP Melanie Verwoerd said an impeachment inquiry would have to consider that the SA Reserve Bank’s investigation into the Phala Phala matter cleared Ramaphosa of exchange control violations.

The central bank’s report findings were published after the independent panel concluded its work and might give the president more confidence to weather an impeachment inquiry.

She said it is unlikely that Ramaphosa will be impeached, as it would require more than two-thirds of MPs to vote him out. Even a vote of no-confidence, which requires a 50% majority, is unlikely to succeed as most parties in parliament are satisfied with Ramaphosa as president.

The ANC has 159 seats in parliament, accounting for just less than 40% of the 400 seats in the National Assembly. It lost its parliamentary majority after the 2024 general election, marking the first time since the end of apartheid that it lacks full legislative control.

Two opposition parties — MK and the African Transformation Movement — have separately filed a motion of no confidence in the president, in terms of section 102(2) of the constitution. A vote of no confidence requires only a simple majority in the National Assembly to succeed.

MK leader Jacob Zuma survived several motions of no confidence when he was president and head of the ANC because at that stage the ANC had more than two thirds of the seats in parliament, and the party whip ensured MPs voted along party lines.

“In light of the constitutional importance of a motion of no confidence, as well as the considerable political pressures surrounding such proceedings, we have written to the speaker of the National Assembly requesting that the motion be conducted by secret ballot,” MK spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said.

“This is to safeguard the independence and integrity of members’ votes and to ensure they can exercise their responsibilities freely and effectively.”

Unlike a no-confidence vote, section 89 sets out three specific grounds on which the National Assembly can remove a sitting president, namely a serious violation of the constitution or law, serious misconduct or an inability to perform the functions of office. Removal under section 89 requires a two-thirds majority of National Assembly members.