JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Constitutional Court, the nation’s highest judicial body, has delivered a landmark ruling overturning a 2022 parliamentary vote that dismissed an inquiry report finding credible evidence of misconduct by President Cyril Ramaphosa connected to the years-long Phala Phala cash scandal. The decision clears all legal barriers to launch formal impeachment proceedings against the sitting head of state.
The controversy at the center of the case stems from the 2020 discovery that roughly $580,000 in untraceable cash was hidden inside a sofa at Ramaphosa’s private Phala Phala game farm, where the money was later stolen. A parliamentary investigative panel produced a damning report in 2022 recommending a full impeachment inquiry into the incident, but Ramaphora’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) used its then-parliamentary majority to block the recommendation and kill the probe, allowing Ramaphosa to survive an initial impeachment motion that year.
Opposition parties, including the hardline Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), challenged the parliamentary vote in court, arguing that ANC lawmakers abused their majority to shield Ramaphosa from accountability for his alleged actions. On Friday, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya upheld the opposition’s challenge, ruling that the inquiry’s original report must now be sent to a dedicated impeachment committee to conduct a full, formal investigation. If the committee finds sufficient evidence of misconduct after its probe, it will move forward with a vote on whether to impeach Ramaphosa. “In the event that the panel of inquiry concludes that sufficient evidence exists, the matter must be referred to the impeachment committee,” Maya outlined in the court’s ruling.
Following the ruling, EFF leader Julius Malema, a longstanding vocal critic of Ramaphosa, reiterated calls for the president to step down immediately and demanded impeachment proceedings get underway without delay. Addressing a gathering of his supporters, Malema claimed the coming investigation would produce irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing, stating “Ramaphosa is going to jail. With the amount of shenanigans and evidence that will come out of that impeachment process, there is no way that Ramaphosa is not going to jail.”
Ramaphosa has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the scandal, insisting the cached cash was legitimate proceeds from the private sale of buffalo from his farm. He told investigators he reported the theft to his head of security rather than formal law enforcement, but the original parliamentary inquiry rejected this account and stood by its recommendation for a full impeachment investigation.
The scandal has lingered as a major political liability for Ramaphosa for years, as opposition groups have continuously pushed for his resignation. The political landscape shifted dramatically for the ANC in 2024, when the party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since it took power following the end of apartheid in 1994. Ramaphosa is currently serving his final term as president, and faces additional allegations beyond the cash theft incident, including claims of tax evasion, money laundering, and violations of national currency regulations. Critics have repeatedly questioned why proceeds from a legal business transaction would be hidden in a couch at a private farm.
In a statement released Friday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the president has remained fully cooperative with all previous investigations into the matter, and will continue to comply with all legal processes moving forward. “President Ramaphosa maintains that no person is above the law and that any allegations should be subjected to due process without fear, favour or prejudice,” Magwenya said. It is worth noting that two separate prior inquiries, one conducted by South Africa’s reserve bank and another by a public anti-corruption watchdog, previously cleared Ramaphosa of all wrongdoing.