EFF welcomes ConCourt’s imminent judgment on Phala Phala

The EFF is upbeat about its chances of having the Constitutional Court ruling in its favour in the party’s high-stakes Phala Phala case involving President Cyril Ramaphosa. The EFF wants to rule against Parliament for what the red berets described as the National Assembly’s failure to implement a Section 89 panel’s recommendation that Ramaphosa should be subjected to impeachment processes. The ConCourt has confirmed that it will deliver its judgment on the matter on Friday.

While the EFF was unhappy with the fact that the judgment was being delivered 521 days after the matter was argued, it nonetheless welcomed the fact that judgment was finally being delivered. “From the beginning, the EFF has been the lone and consistent voice demanding accountability for the criminality, secrecy, and abuse of power surrounding the Phala Phala scandal. “We await the judgment with the expectation that the Constitutional Court ensures that the Section 89 report is properly returned to Parliament for lawful consideration and accountability processes,” the party said in a statement.

The case stems from the 2020 theft of foreign currency, reportedly amounting to millions of dollars from Ramaphosa’s game farm in Limpopo. Despite the incident having occurred in 2020, it only surfaced publicly two years later, triggering widespread scrutiny over the origin of the funds and the handling of the matter. Friday’s judgment, the EFF said, will test Parliament’s willingness and ability to hold the executive to account. The red berets argued that Parliament’s decision in December 2022 to reject the panel’s findings effectively shielded the president from scrutiny.