CAPE TOWN: Leading South African opposition figure Julius Malema has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign after the Constitutional Court ruled that parliament had violated the constitution by blocking moves to impeach him in 2022.
The judgement, which came after a legal challenge by opposition parties including Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), could result in fresh impeachment proceedings.
In 2022, a panel of legal experts said Ramaphosa may have a case to answer after burglars stole more than $500,000 (£370,000) in cash, hidden in a sofa, from his rural home.
The theft led to allegations that he had not accounted for where the cash had come from. The president denied wrongdoing.
But impeachment proceedings were blocked four years ago in a parliamentary vote. At that time Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) had a majority in parliament, but since the 2024 general election the ANC has been governing in a coalition.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party has welcomed and respects the Friday’s judgment.
She told South African online platform News 24 that the party’s national executive and working committees will be meeting to look at the judgement, and that they will give a response.
Speaking to reporters outside court, Malema said Ramaphosa should resign and “concentrate on this impeachment process because it has got serious implications on him as an individual”.
“You cannot serve the two – one is going to suffer,” he explained, referring to being president and preparing for impeachment.
The EFF took the case to the country’s highest court alongside the African Transformation Movement in 2024.
Malema said members of Ramaphosa’s ANC will impeach him because “the evidence will be before their eyes”.
Geordin Hill-Lewis, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party in the governing coalition, said politicians “must uphold the rule of law”, and that parliament’s impeachment committee “must now do its work properly, rationally, fairly and constitutionally”.
This saga – dubbed “Farmgate” by local media – began in 2020, after $580,000 had allegedly been stolen from Phala Phala, Ramaphosa’s farm in the northern Limpopo province.
Two years later, an independent panel found evidence that the president may have violated his oath of office, but in a debate that focused on its findings, parliament voted 214 to 148 against setting up an impeachment committee.
South Africa has strict rules on holding foreign currency, which say that it must be deposited with an authorised dealer such as a bank with 30 days. At the time, Ramaphosa said the cash was from selling a buffalo.
Three people are on trial for the alleged theft.
