CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s Constitutional Court said Thursday that it would hear a case next month brought by two opposition parties to revive impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a scandal involving more than $500,000 in cash that was hidden in a couch at his ranch and then stolen.
Ramaphosa avoided an impeachment vote in 2022 when his African National Congress party used its majority in Parliament to block a motion, even after an independent report raised questions over his conduct and recommended there be a full investigation.
The ANC has since been joined by nine other parties in a broad coalition to govern South Africa, quietening some of the criticism of Ramaphosa over the scandal.
But two parties who aren’t part of the unity government, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters and the African Transformation Movement, filed papers with the country’s highest court, arguing that Parliament didn’t properly fulfil its constitutional role in holding the president to account.
The scandal broke in June 2022 and was a threat to Ramaphosa’s leadership. It was revealed that at least $580,000 in U.S. banknotes that were stashed in a couch at his Phala Phala game farm had been stolen more than two years earlier and kept quiet.
Ramaphosa was accused of tax evasion, money laundering and breaching foreign currency laws by opposition parties. He denied wrongdoing and said the money came from the legitimate sale of animals at the ranch, although he didn’t explain why it was hidden in furniture.
He was also quizzed over whether the theft was properly reported to police. Ramaphosa said that he reported it to the head of his police security detail, but faced accusations of attempting to cover up the theft and the existence of the money.
Ramaphosa was cleared of wrongdoing by the reserve bank and a public watchdog, decisions some opposition parties also questioned.
Ramaphosa, 71, was reelected for a second term in June, but only with the help of opposition lawmakers after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since South Africa became a democracy in 1994 at the end of apartheid.
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