Phala Phala: ConCourt declines to hear appeal on Ramaphosa interdict ruling
· Citizen
The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has refused an urgent bid to appeal a ruling that brought President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala impeachment inquiry to a halt.
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In an order handed down on Wednesday, the apex court declined to grant direct access and dismissed applications for leave to appeal the earlier judgment.
“It has concluded that no case has been made out for leave to file a replying affidavit.
“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,” the ConCourt’s order reads.
Several political parties, including the ATM, EFF, United Africans Transformation, and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, had approached the ConCourt seeking to overturn a ruling of the Western Cape High Court that granted Ramaphosa an interdict.
As a result, the decision halted the public hearings of Parliament’s impeachment committee, pending the president’s review application against a Section 89 independent panel report.
Ramaphosa wants to overturn the panel’s findings after it concluded that he has questions to answer regarding the theft of approximately $580 000 (about R9.6 million) from his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo in February 2020.
The review is set to be heard from 2 to 4 September by the Western Cape High Court.
The legal battle follows a ConCourt ruling in May this year, which found that Parliament had acted unlawfully by blocking impeachment proceedings against the president in December 2022.
The National Assembly was, therefore, ordered to establish a formal impeachment committee to investigate the allegations further.
The committee is made up of 31 members of parliament from 16 political parties.