By Simon Nare
The Constitutional Court has denied the Impeachment Committee’s request to probe President Cyril Ramaphosa’s handling of the theft of foreign currency at his private Phala Phala farm direct access to appeal a Western Cape High Court judgment.
The apex court said it was not in the interests of justice to hear the matter at this stage, given the imminent determination of a review application in the Western Cape Division of the High Court.
The court said the outcome of the review would render the interim interdict against the committee moot.
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“The court has also concluded that it is not in the interests of justice to hear the matter at this stage, given the imminent determination of the review in the Western Cape Division of the High Court, the outcome of which will render the interim interdict moot,” it said in its ruling.
The court also said the parties had not made out a case for leave to file a replying affidavit, after considering the application and affidavits filed by uMkhonto weSizwe, the EFF, ATM, and United Africans Transformation.
Responding to the ruling, committee chairperson Makashule Gana said the committee had noted the decision but would continue with its preparatory work in line with the High Court judgment, which interdicted it from proceeding with public hearings.
“We will therefore move forward in line with the Western Cape High Court judgment. We are going to finalise the committee’s terms of reference and also receive an update on the appointment of the evidence leader at our next meeting,” he said.
Gana said the committee had completed its recommendation on the appointment of the evidence leader and was finalising its terms of reference to guide its work.
“Once the evidence leader has been appointed, we will move to the next stage, which will include considering the list of witnesses,” he said.
The review application has been set down for hearing from September 2 to 4, 2026, after Ramaphosa won the first round of his legal battle to challenge the impeachment process.
