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The EFF has vowed to ramp up pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa over the revived Phala Phala saga, warning it will not tolerate delays in the impeachment process.
Party leader Julius Malema made remarks while addressing the party’s central command team youth elections task force, hinting at an aggressive push to fast-track parliamentary proceedings.
“If he wants to put up a fight, I can tell you now — they think they can put up a fight because they are going to win. No one has got a two-thirds majority. Who cares about a two-thirds majority? We care about the impeachment process because that’s where you’re going to embarrass yourself.”
Any attempt to delay proceedings through the courts would be challenged, with the EFF set to push for the matter to be treated as one of national importance and prioritised.
The comments come days after the Constitutional Court ruled that parliament must reopen the impeachment process linked to the 2020 theft of foreign currency at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm.
The apex court found that MPs failed to properly consider an independent panel report which concluded the president may have a case to answer, effectively reviving the possibility of an impeachment inquiry.
Ramaphosa is now weighing his legal options after the ruling, with sources indicating that resignation is not currently under consideration.
The EFF has long argued that the Phala Phala matter — involving the theft of about $580,000 (R9.5m) in cash allegedly concealed at the president’s farm — raises serious questions about Ramaphosa’s conduct.
While previous investigations, including by the South African Reserve Bank and then-acting public protector Kholeka Gcaleka in 2023, cleared the president of wrongdoing, the revived parliamentary process is expected to intensify political pressure before this year’s local government elections.
Some analysts say Ramaphosa and the ANC are in a much weaker position than in 2022, when parliament’s independent panel found he had a case to answer — with the ANC having lost its majority in the 2024 elections.
TimesLIVE
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