{"id":244803,"date":"2026-05-21T01:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/244803\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T01:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:22:15","slug":"ramaphosa-writes-to-chief-justice-seeking-permission-to-challenge-phala-phala-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/244803\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa writes to Chief Justice seeking permission to challenge Phala Phala report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly asked the Office of the Chief Justice for permission to launch a judicial review of the Section 89 <a href=\"https:\/\/iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/2026-05-14-parliament-appoints-31-member-panel-to-reassess-phala-phala-report-with-impeachment-on-the-table\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Independent Panel report on the Phala Phala<\/a> scandal.<\/p>\n<p>The request is required under Section 47 of the Superior Courts Act because the case involved judges who served on the panel that investigated the president.<\/p>\n<p>If granted, it will allow Ramaphosa\u2019s legal team to formally file court papers challenging the report.<\/p>\n<p>The panel found that there was prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have committed serious misconduct linked to the theft of foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.<\/p>\n<p>The money, from game sales, was stolen in February 2020 after thieves broke into the property and hid cash inside a sofa.<\/p>\n<p>The case became public in 2022 when opposition parties pushed Parliament to investigate under Section 89 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>A panel led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo concluded that the president could have breached constitutional duties.<\/p>\n<p>Parliament initially voted in December 2022 not to proceed with impeachment.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Constitutional Court later ruled that the decision was unlawful and ordered Parliament to restart the impeachment process properly.<\/p>\n<p>In a ruling delivered on May 8, the court instructed the National Assembly to set up a new committee to consider the panel\u2019s findings and continue the impeachment process.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa is now challenging the panel report itself, arguing that it is flawed and did not fairly assess the evidence.<\/p>\n<p>His legal team wants the findings set aside, which could weaken or halt the impeachment process.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition parties have criticised the move.<\/p>\n<p>The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) accused the president of delaying accountability.<\/p>\n<p>ActionSA and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) also said the legal challenge could slow Parliament\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>The African National Congress (ANC) defended Ramaphosa\u2019s right to go to court, saying he is entitled to challenge findings and ensure due process is followed.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa has said he respects the Constitutional Court and will cooperate with the impeachment process, but maintains that he must be allowed to contest the report in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly asked the Office of the Chief Justice for permission to launch a judicial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[7399,7933,76370,2734,13057,2334,4459,115385,10568,118049,141,12985,4735,92112,113273,131,34187],"class_list":["post-244803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-actionsa","tag-african-national-congress","tag-african-transformation-movement","tag-constitution","tag-constitutional-court","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-economic-freedom-fighters","tag-independent-panel","tag-iol-politics","tag-kamogelo-moichelaiol-co-za","tag-limpopo","tag-national-assembly","tag-parliament","tag-phala-phala","tag-sandile-ngcobo","tag-south-africa","tag-superior-courts-act"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116609950802310841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}