JOHANNESBURG, Friday 8 May 2026 — The Constitutional Court has revived the Ramaphosa impeachment process over the Phala Phala matter, ordering that an independent panel report be referred to an impeachment committee in Parliament.
The judgment set aside the National Assembly’s 2022 decision not to adopt the Section 89 panel report, which had found that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have a case to answer over the handling of the Phala Phala farm matter.
The ruling does not remove Ramaphosa from office. It sends the matter back to Parliament for further processing under the rules dealing with possible impeachment proceedings.
What the court decided
The Constitutional Court found that Parliament acted unlawfully when it blocked the report from being referred to an impeachment committee.
The case was brought by the Economic Freedom Fighters and supported by other opposition parties, which argued that the National Assembly had failed to properly carry out its constitutional duty to hold the president accountable.
The Section 89 process is the constitutional mechanism used to consider whether a president may have committed a serious violation of the Constitution or the law, serious misconduct, or an inability to perform the functions of office.
According to reports, the court ordered that the independent panel report must now be referred to a committee for further consideration.
Phala Phala matter returns to Parliament
The Phala Phala matter relates to the theft of foreign currency from Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm in 2020.
Ramaphosa has said the money came from the sale of buffalo and has denied wrongdoing. He has not been criminally charged in relation to the matter.
The independent panel report was first placed before the National Assembly in 2022. At the time, MPs voted not to adopt the report, preventing the matter from moving to an impeachment committee.
That decision has now been set aside, meaning Parliament will have to reconsider the matter through the appropriate process.
Political parties respond
EFF leader Julius Malema welcomed the judgment and called on Ramaphosa to resign, according to local reports.
Ramaphosa said he respected the Constitutional Court’s ruling and the principle that no person is above the law, according to Reuters.
The ruling comes in a different political environment from 2022. The ANC no longer holds an outright majority in Parliament after the 2024 national election and now governs through a coalition arrangement.
Reuters reported that the Democratic Alliance, a key coalition partner, said it would participate in the impeachment committee process without prejudging the outcome.
What happens next
Parliament will now have to refer the Section 89 panel report to an impeachment committee.
The committee process will determine whether the matter should proceed further. Any final decision on impeachment would require additional parliamentary steps and voting processes.
For now, the Constitutional Court ruling has reopened a process that Parliament halted in 2022, placing the Phala Phala matter back before the National Assembly.