The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has won a significant legal victory: a Western Cape High Court judge has halted the parliamentary committee that was preparing to investigate his alleged involvement in the 2020 “Farmgate” cash‑theft scandal.
In the two‑year‑old case, robbers took approximately $580,000 in U.S. dollars from a sofa hidden on Ramaphosa’s private farm in Phala Phala, Limpopo province.
Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing, and his legal team argued that allowing the impeachment committee to proceed would cause irreparable damage to his reputation before his separate court case could address the allegations.
The judge’s ruling buys the president more time to challenge the conclusions of an independent panel that had earlier been dismissed by a parliamentary vote. Until the panel’s case is resolved—scheduled for September—the committee’s hearings remain suspended.
Parliamentary and opposition leaders have responded sharply. The Democratic Alliance, part of the governing coalition, said the court did not stop the committee from carrying out preliminary work, while the opposition’s uMkhonto weSizwe accused Ramaphosa of using the courts to avoid scrutiny. Nonetheless, the ANC welcomed the ruling and urged political rivals to refrain from “politically motivated distortions.”
With the Constitutional Court’s May ruling that parliament had unlawfully shelved the panel’s report, the impeachment process was reopened, only to be temporarily set aside. The latest court decision keeps the door open for a full investigation once the president’s own case concludes, but it also underscores the deep political divisions within South Africa’s fractured parliament.
