President Cyril Ramaphosa has approached the Western Cape High Court to challenge the independent panel report that found he may have a case to answer over the Phala Phala farm scandal, even as Parliament’s newly-formed impeachment committee prepares to sit.

The president filed his legal challenge on 26 May, seeking to have the Section 89 panel report set aside. His legal team argues the panel relied on hearsay evidence, misunderstood its powers, and used questionable evidence in reaching its conclusions.

The move comes just weeks after the Constitutional Court ruled on 8 May that Parliament must restart the impeachment process. The country’s highest court declared the National Assembly’s December 2022 vote against referring the panel report to an impeachment committee unconstitutional and invalid.

In that December 2022 vote, MPs had rejected a motion to continue investigating whether Ramaphosa had breached his oath of office in connection with the theft of foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo in February 2020.

The Constitutional Court’s judgment ordered that the independent panel’s report must now be referred to an impeachment committee, forcing Parliament into what National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza described as “uncharted procedural terrain”.

Didiza confirmed the formation of a 31-member impeachment committee drawn from 16 political parties. The composition was determined by proportional representation and what the Speaker called “inclusivity and broad participation”.

All parties represented in the National Assembly were invited to submit nominees by 22 May, with only the Pan Africanist Congress and the GOOD Party not participating.

Both the Patriotic Alliance and Al Jama-ah have indicated they will serve on the committee but will not support Ramaphosa’s impeachment.

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Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie said recently: “There is no PA that will vote for the impeachment of President Ramaphosa. We will vote against the impeachment of President Ramaphosa.”

Al Jama-ah echoed this position, with both parties stating they will stand by the president on the Phala Phala matter.

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The impeachment committee’s task is to examine whether the evidence in the independent panel report warrants proceedings to remove Ramaphosa from office. The panel, chaired by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, found in November 2022 that the president may have violated the Constitution and committed serious misconduct.

The Phala Phala controversy centres on the theft of an estimated $580 000 in cash from Ramaphosa’s game farm. Questions have been raised about why such a large sum of foreign currency was kept at the property, whether it was properly declared, and how the matter was handled after the theft.

The president has maintained that the money came from the legitimate sale of game and that he acted appropriately.

With Ramaphosa’s High Court challenge now running parallel to the parliamentary process, the impeachment inquiry faces potential legal complications that could delay or affect its proceedings.

The impeachment committee has not yet announced when it will begin its hearings.

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