South Africa court rules impeachment proceedings against president should not have been blocked
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that parliament violated the constitution by blocking moves to impeach President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2022.
The judgement may lead to new impeachment proceedings putting the president’s political future in peril as his African National Congress no longer has a majority in parliament.
The ruling came as a result of a legal challenge by opposition parties. A panel of legal experts had originally said that Ramaphosa may have a case to answer after burglars stole more than $500,000 in cash, hidden in a sofa, from his rural home.
That theft led to allegations that he had not accounted for where the cash had come from. The president denied wrongdoing.
Impeachment proceedings were blocked four years ago in a parliamentary vote, but since the 2024 general election the ANC has been governing in a coalition.
The saga began in 2020, after $580,000 had allegedly been stolen from Phala Phala, Ramaphosa’s farm in the northern Limpopo province.
At the time, he said the money was from selling a buffalo.
Three people are on trial for the alleged theft.
[Getty Images/BBC]
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