President Ramaphosa’s Impeachment Halted Temporarily by the Court, Over “Farmgate” Scandal
In a significant legal victory, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has secured a temporary halt to the parliamentary impeachment proceedings against him. The Western Cape High Court has granted the president an interim interdict, which temporarily blocks the parliamentary impeachment committee from holding public hearings. This ruling comes as Ramaphosa challenges the legal validity of a critical 2022 panel report that concluded he may have committed serious misconduct and constitutional violations.
The scandal, widely known as “Farmgate,” began in 2020 when an allegedly undeclared stash of foreign currency was reported stolen from Ramaphosa’s luxury Phala Phala farmhouse, in the northern Limpopo province. The incident remained hidden from public view until the theft came to light, blowing-loud embarrassment and trailing questions about the president’s personal financial dealings. Ramaphosa has consistently denied any wrongdoing and ruled out resigning. He explained that the stashed funds, totalling $580,000:00, were the legitimate proceeds from the sale of buffaloes at his ranch.
The core allegations against the president centre on the half-million dollars in foreign cash, stashed inside a sofa at his ranch. The primary questions raised by investigators and critics, focus on why such a large sum of foreign currency was hidden inside furniture; and why it went undeclared.
The controversy nearly cost Ramaphosa the leadership of his party, the African National Congress (ANC), in late 2022. More broadly, systemic allegations of corruption within the ANC contributed to the party losing its outright parliamentary majority in the May 2024 elections, marking the most closely contested vote since South Africa’s transition to democracy. Despite these setbacks, an independent panel’s findings in 2022 that he “may have a case to answer“, kept the threat of impeachment active.
The halt in the impeachment hearings, is the direct result of the Western Cape High Court’s ruling. Judge Andre le Grange announced that the respondents are interdicted from proceeding with public hearings, pending the court’s review of Ramaphosa’s challenge to the 2022 report. This pause provides a crucial buffer for the president, who is also awaiting the outcome of a separate court challenge, regarding the independent panel’s findings.
After the court had made its decision, Vincent Magwenya, who is the presidential spokesperson, said that Ramaphosa respects the ruling and expressed “his respect for the judicial independence and the separation of powers which are provided for in our Constitution“. He also said that the president will keep working with the formal accountability processes.
Based on political analysis, there are believes that even if the court-ordered pause is lifted and the impeachment hearings proceed, President Ramaphosa is very likely to remain in office, as he still has the full support of the ANC, the country’s largest political party and the one currently in charge of the coalition government.
The ANC holds about 40 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly, so any final vote on impeachment would need broad support across the assembly, and it is unclear how the ANC’s coalition partners would vote.
