President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the Constitutional Court to dismiss an urgent appeal seeking to revive Parliament’s impeachment process against him. The appeal follows a Western Cape High Court ruling that halted the proceedings, with Ramaphosa arguing that Parliament should wait for the next stage of the legal process before taking any further action.
The urgent appeal was brought by Parliament’s Impeachment Committee together with several opposition parties, including the African Transformation Movement (ATM), the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and the United African Transformation (UAT).
Executive Secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), Lawson Naidoo, said the matter before the Constitutional Court concerns an appeal against an urgent interdict granted by the Western Cape High Court.
“What we have is a decision of the Western Cape High Court hearing an application for an urgent interdict by the president, which was granted nearly two weeks ago,” Naidoo said.
He explained that the opposition parties and the Impeachment Committee are now seeking to overturn that decision in the Constitutional Court.
“It’s an appeal to the Con Court against an urgent interdict, which is not normal in these circumstances. Urgent interdicts are not normally appealable, except on very specific and limited legal grounds,” he said.
Naidoo added that the President’s argument is that those legal requirements have not been met.
“The President’s case before the Constitutional Court is that such grounds have not been made out in the application by the impeachment committee and the opposition parties,” he said.
The Constitutional Court is expected to determine whether the appeal can proceed before Parliament considers any further steps in the impeachment process.
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