Story audio is generated using AI
President Cyril Ramaphosa could escape parliament’s probe into the Phala Phala saga if he convinces the Western Cape High Court to deliver an interim order halting the impeachment committee inquiry, legal analysts say. Like his predecessor Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa could deploy successive appeals and counterappeals that could delay proceedings until he leaves office, rendering them irrelevant.The legal battle against an independent panel report is set to play itself out for the duration of Ramaphosa’s second term in office, which is expected to end in 2029. Time will be an essential factor in whether he will ever account for events at his Phala Phala game farm that resulted in the loss of $538,000 and the arrest of Namibian siblings, one of whom worked on the farm. Legal analysts warn that with a successful interdict on the parliamentary committee to stop impeachment proceedings, it could help him play for time, limiting the prospects of accounting before his term ends.The president last week initiated an urgent application seeking a court order to stop the National Assembly from starting an impeachment committee inquiry against him. He wants the processes to be halted pending his review application, which seeks to set aside the panel’s report produced by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, retired justice Thokozile Masipa and advocate Mahlape Sello. It found he may have breached the law and the constitution in his handling of the case of theft of foreign currency at Phala Phala in 2020. Those who have faced impeachment processes, such as former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and former Western Cape judge president John Hlophe, failed to obtain interdicts against parliament. “If the president is successful [and the impeachment committee is halted], then I cannot see how this matter will be resolved before his term of office expires,” University of Pretoria law lecturer Llewelyn Curlewis told Business Day. “Maybe this is exactly what he is trying to do.”The review of the application against the Phala Phala report, opposed by opposition parties in parliament, could drag out for years before reaching finality. If the president fails on the urgent interdict, he will face parliament’s impeachment inquiry while the review is taking place. And if he is impeached, he will not receive any benefits, including a lifetime pension, and will be unable to serve in any public office afterwards.Should the report on Phala Phala of the panel be set aside, the impeachment inquiry proceedings will also fall away. The president initiated the interdict a month after the Constitutional Court delivered a judgment referring the Phala Phala report to the impeachment committee. The timing could play against him in arguing why the matter necessitates urgent relief. “He [Ramaphosa] should have filed the interim interdict when he filed the review. To wait another month after that will be frowned upon by the court,” Curlewis said. “That in itself suggests maybe this is a self-created urgency.”Ramaphosa initiated the interdict application after impeachment committee chair MP Makashule Gana refused to halt the processes pending the review challenge. In his interdict application, the president said there was a “high risk and, in fact, inevitability of irreparable harm”. “The hearings will allow baseless and unfounded allegations, which may potentially be defamatory, to be made against me in front of the entire country and the international community,” he argues. The president argues that, should the independent panel report be set aside, the committee’s proceedings would be wasteful because, without the report, the work of the committee means nothing. Koos Malan, emeritus professor of public law at the University of Pretoria, described the litigation as the president’s “fight for his life”. “To my mind, the main thing the president and the ANC fears is not impeachment as such, because they know they have enough members in the National Assembly to avoid impeachment; they still have more than one-third of the members in the National Assembly. They can avoid an impeachment,” he said. ‘Gruelling experience’The National Assembly has 400 members, and for the president to be impeached, about 266 MPs should vote for his removal.Malan said the president is concerned about humiliating questions he would be confronted with in the inquiry. “That is what is bothering the president and the ANC. In that investigation, the president will be called as a witness, and then he is going to be questioned by his opponents, one might say his enemies, people such as Julius Malema and John Hlophe. “That is going to be a gruelling experience; that is going to humiliate the president. They are going to embarrass the president. That is the main thing that the president wants to avoid, to my mind,” Malan said. Malan added that with an interdict against the committee, the president could escape parliamentary impeachment. “One of the parties involved might want to approach the Constitutional Court to deal with the review matter directly to allow us to reach a point of a final resolution of the matter. To avoid any further delays, the Constitutional Court would most directly entertain [the matter].” Malan said the president has a chance of succeeding in the urgent application, but it would not be easy, as the court would tread carefully not to encroach on parliament’s powers.
