The South African Court suspended this Friday (24) the public hearings of the impeachment process of President Cyril Ramaphosa, opened in Parliament due to the case that became known as “Farmgate”. The injunction is valid until the same panel judges the appeal in which Ramaphosa tries to annul a 2022 report that supports the investigation. The session is scheduled for the beginning of November.
The decision was taken by two votes to one. According to judge André le Grange, “while this court awaits the decision on the applicant’s request for review [Ramapshosa]the defendants are prohibited from proceeding with the public impeachment hearing.”
The South African president’s lawyer, Wim Tregove, argued that subjecting the country’s highest authority to a public inquiry based on a report that could be declared illegal would produce public “humiliation”. The representative of the parliamentary impeachment committee, William Mikhare, commented that granting the injunction would be equivalent to suspending an order from the country’s Constitutional Court.
“Farmgate” is the name given to the episode revealed in 2022, when the South African press reported that, in February 2020, thieves had taken a sum hidden inside a sofa at the Phala Phala farm, owned by Ramaphosa in the province of Limpopo. The theft was never formally reported to the police.
The South African president denies wrongdoing. According to him, the money was the result of payment for the sale of buffaloes. He argues that the amount would be US$580,000, while the opposition speaks of US$4 million, based on the amount determined in the complaints.
The committee that took the decision this Friday was formed after the Constitutional Court determined, in May, that the South African Parliament had acted irregularly by dismissing the case in December 2022. At the time, the ruling bench, which was in the majority, rejected the report of an independent panel that pointed out violations of the Constitution.
Regarding the impeachment process, Ramaphosa has a favorable scenario in the Legislature. The South African Constitution requires the votes of two-thirds of the National Assembly to remove the president, while its coalition party elected around 40% of deputies in May 2024.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
