EFF skips the queue, goes straight to ConCourt over Ramaphosa interdict

By Anita Dangazele

• The EFF wants the Constitutional Court to overturn a Western Cape High Court ruling that paused Parliament’s impeachment committee.

• The party is asking to join the case as a Third Applicant, alongside Vuyolwethu Zungula and the African Transformation Movement.

The EFF has approached the Constitutional Court directly, seeking urgent leave to appeal a ruling that paused Parliament’s Section 89 impeachment inquiry into President Cyril Ramaphosa.

On Friday, 24 July, the Western Cape High Court granted Ramaphosa an interim interdict stopping the impeachment committee’s public hearings, pending a separate court review of the report that triggered the process.

The ruling was split: of three judgments delivered, one found Ramaphosa had not made his case and should be dismissed, while two others granted the interdict for a limited period. Ramaphosa’s own review of that report is set to be heard from 2 to 4 September.

The EFF wants that ruling overturned entirely. The party is asking the Constitutional Court to recognise it as a Third Applicant, joining Vuyolwethu Zungula and the African Transformation Movement, who are seeking the same outcome.

The EFF argues the impeachment committee has not made any finding against Ramaphosa, and that its job is only to investigate, not to determine guilt. The party says allowing Ramaphosa to use the courts to pause an investigation into his own conduct sets a dangerous precedent, one where public officials could delay accountability simply by going to court.

“The EFF further maintains that Ramaphosa cannot use the courts to suspend a constitutional accountability mechanism directed at investigating his own conduct,” the party said in a statement.

The party is asking the Constitutional Court to intervene urgently rather than let the matter work through the ordinary appeal process, arguing that every day the interdict remains in place is a day Parliament cannot carry out its constitutional duty.

The Presidency has said Ramaphosa respects the High Court’s ruling and sees it as confirmation of judicial independence.

The impeachment committee, chaired by Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana, has said it is still studying the full judgment to determine what work it can continue in the meantime.

Pictured above: Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema.

Image source: Economic Freedom Fighters