President calls family meeting after court ruling on Phala Phala
President Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to address the nation at 20h00 on Monday evening from the Union Buildings in Pretoria, following a decisive Constitutional Court ruling that has revived the possibility of impeachment proceedings linked to the 2020 Phala Phala farm incident.
Phala Phala
South Africa’s highest court delivered a unanimous judgment on Friday, declaring that the National Assembly acted unconstitutionally and irrationally when ANC legislators used their parliamentary majority in December 2022 to block the Section 89 impeachment process.
That process had been triggered by an independent panel’s report that contained critical findings against the President. The court invalidated National Assembly Rule 129I and ordered that the panel’s report be sent without delay to an impeachment committee.
The affair first came to light in June 2022, when former State Security Agency head Arthur Fraser accused Ramaphosa of covering up the theft of over $500,000 (around R8 million) that was allegedly stashed inside furniture on the President’s Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo.
Fraser also alleged that the President bypassed proper legal channels in handling the matter. Ramaphosa has consistently denied any wrongdoing, explaining that the money came from a legal sale of buffalo to a buyer from Sudan, and has insisted that he fully cooperated with all investigations.
Intensity on the case
Following the Constitutional Court’s ruling, opposition parties including the EFF, MK Party, and ATM have intensified demands for an immediate impeachment inquiry and for the President to step down. On Monday, in an effort to comply with the court’s directive, Parliament Speaker Thoko Didiza announced that she would formally table the independent panel’s report, establish an impeachment committee, and refer the report to that committee for a full Section 89 investigation.
The Presidency has said that President Ramaphosa accepts the court’s decision and continues to uphold the principle of the rule of law. His evening address is widely expected to outline his response to the relaunched impeachment process and the deepening political crisis facing his government.
