CAPE TOWN, June 21– South Africa’s Parliament Speaker Thokozile Didiza will not oppose President Cyril Ramaphosa’s urgent bid to halt the impeachment proceedings, the Parliament said Sunday.
Ramaphosa filed an urgent application on June 12, seeking to suspend the Impeachment Committee’s work while challenging the findings of an independent panel report into the Phala Phala affair. In court papers, he argued that the proceedings should be paused pending a judicial review of the report.
On May 26, the president launched a separate challenge asking the Western Cape High Court to review and set aside the panel’s findings.
Didiza filed a notice on Friday, saying that she would abide by the Western Cape High Court’s decision. The move means that the Parliament will not contest the application.
In a statement on Sunday, the Parliament said Didiza’s notice to abide will be filed alongside an explanatory affidavit to assist the court.
“Given the content of the explanatory affidavit, the Speaker believes that the stance adopted is not only necessary but is entirely consistent with the respective roles and responsibilities of the Assembly versus those of the Impeachment Committee,” the Parliament said.
The development came days after the Impeachment Committee said it would oppose Ramaphosa’s urgent court application and had asked Didiza to join the committee in opposing the president’s bid.
The impeachment process was revived after South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled last month that the Parliament had acted unlawfully when it rejected the panel’s report in 2022.
The Phala Phala case stems from the alleged theft of about 580,000 U.S. dollars in cash from Ramaphosa’s private game farm in Limpopo Province in 2020.
An independent panel chaired by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo found in a 2022 report that there was prima facie evidence suggesting that Ramaphosa may have committed serious misconduct in connection with the matter. However, the National Assembly later voted against adopting the report and pursuing impeachment proceedings. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
