Chief Justice Mandisa Maya goes trough the judgement as South Africa’s Constitutional Court gives the ruling on whether the parliament failed to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa to account over the “Farmgate” scandal, involving allegations that foreign currency was hidden at his Phala Phala game farm, in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 8, 2026. Image @ REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ordered the establishment of a parliamentary impeachment committee to investigate President Cyril Ramaphosa, reviving a long-stalled probe into a foreign currency theft scandal at his private game farm.
The ruling, delivered Friday, declared that a 2022 move by Ramaphosa’s African National Congress to block the formation of such a committee was unconstitutional. The court directed that the committee be set up without delay.
The scandal, widely known as “Farmgate,” dates to 2020, when a large sum of foreign currency was stolen from inside a sofa at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game ranch. It erupted into public view when a former intelligence official walked into a police station alleging the president had attempted to cover up the theft of approximately $4 million in cash. Ramaphosa acknowledged the break-in but put the stolen amount at $580,000 — a figure far below the one alleged.
The episode drew intense scrutiny over how Ramaphosa, a wealthy businessman before entering the presidency in 2018, came to hold such a large volume of physical foreign cash, whether it had been declared to authorities, and why it was concealed in furniture rather than deposited in a bank. Ramaphosa has consistently denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that the money represented proceeds from the sale of buffaloes on his game ranch.
Judges take their seat at South Africa’s Constitutional Court ahead of the ruling on whether the parliament failed to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa to account over the “Farmgate” scandal, involving allegations that foreign currency was hidden at his Phala Phala game farm, in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 8, 2026. Image@REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
A panel of independent experts convened in 2022 found preliminary evidence suggesting the president may have committed misconduct, prompting calls from some quarters for his resignation. The EFF, the far-left opposition party that brought the current constitutional challenge, wrote to the speaker of the National Assembly on Friday demanding the impeachment committee be constituted immediately.
Ramaphosa, for his part, said in a statement that he respected the court’s judgment.
Despite the ruling’s significance, political analysts cautioned that impeachment remained a distant prospect. Removing a sitting president requires a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly — a threshold that appears difficult to reach. While the ANC lost its outright majority in the 2024 general elections, it still holds well over a third of seats, giving it effective blocking power over any removal vote.
“I don’t think the (panel’s) report is going … any further (towards) impeachment,” political analyst Oscar van Heerden said. “Ramaphosa still (enjoys) majority support (in his party), and they are not going to want to upset things by (taking) this to its logical conclusion,” he added, noting that the ANC’s key coalition partners, including the Democratic Alliance, were equally unlikely to push the process to its conclusion.
Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said the impeachment committee’s work would be detailed and would likely span several months before any outcome becomes clear.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah