PRETORIA, 11 May. - (ANA) - South Africa’s top court ordered parliament to restart an impeachment inquiry into President Cyril Ramaphosa, ruling that lawmakers acted unlawfully when they blocked the process in 2022. The majority ruling, which casts a shadow over Ramaphosa’s future, injects fresh uncertainty into the coalition government and marks the first time in post-apartheid South Africa that a sitting president will be forced into a formal inquiry of this scale.

 

The judgment ordered lawmakers to revive scrutiny of Ramaphosa’s handling of the 2020 theft of foreign currency from his Phala Phala game farm, a scandal that triggered allegations of a cover-up and money laundering. Ramaphosa has denied wrongdoing.

 

The ruling and what follows will be watched closely by investors and business leaders in Africa’s biggest economy: Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala, speaking at Semafor World Economy last month, warned that the country’s anemic growth is rooted in the state’s basic inability to uphold the rule of law.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/11 May 2026 - - -