Ramaphosa impeachment: MK Party, UAT dealt fresh court setback

Ramaphosa

Cape Town – The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and United Africans Transformation (UAT) have failed in their latest attempt to revive Parliament’s impeachment inquiry into President Cyril Ramaphosa after the Western Cape High Court dismissed their application for leave to appeal.

The court dismissed the application on Friday, 28 August 2026, leaving in place an interim interdict that prevents Parliament’s Section 89 Impeachment Committee from holding public hearings while Ramaphosa challenges the findings of an independent panel.

The Citizen reported that the court found an appeal against the interim order would not resolve the underlying dispute.

The July ruling did not completely stop the committee’s work. The committee remains able to conduct preparatory activities, while public hearings under Rule 129M remain suspended pending the outcome of Ramaphosa’s review application.

Judge Matthew Francis said the central issue was whether the Section 89 panel report should ultimately be set aside.

“An appeal against the interim restraint would not decide that issue. It would not advance its adjudication, nor shorten the road to a final answer,” Francis said.

He added that pursuing an appeal would run alongside the review process “at further cost to the parties and to the court”.

The president’s review application is scheduled to be heard in the Western Cape High Court from 2 to 4 September 2026. The outcome could determine whether the interim interdict remains relevant.

The latest ruling follows an earlier decision by the Constitutional Court on 12 August, when the apex court refused an urgent application by several political parties, including the MK Party, UAT, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and African Transformation Movement (ATM), to appeal the interdict directly.

Tthe ConCourt said it was not in the interests of justice to hear the matter at that stage because the pending review could render the interim order moot.

The MK Party and UAT nevertheless returned to the Western Cape High Court, arguing that the interdict could effectively delay Parliament’s impeachment process for an uncertain period.

During the earlier proceedings, MK Party advocate Dali Mpofu argued that the court had interfered with Parliament’s constitutional powers.

“This court has thrashed onto the separation [of] powers, and instructed Parliament, something that should not be done, on how it should conduct its business,” Mpofu argued, according to Eyewitness News.

Mpofu also warned that the review process could take a considerable amount of time.

“Nobody knows when the judgment will come,” he said, arguing that delays in related Constitutional Court litigation demonstrated how long the process could take.

UAT president Wonder Mahlatsi similarly vowed that the party would continue pursuing the matter.

“The issue of Phala Phala is not going anywhere. We are not going to be discouraged as UAT, we are going to fight for our people,” Mahlatsi told SABC News.

The impeachment dispute stems from the 2020 theft of approximately US$580,000 from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo. A Section 89 independent panel previously found that the president had questions to answer over the incident, prompting Parliament to establish the impeachment committee.

The legal battle was revived after the Constitutional Court found in May 2026 that Parliament had acted unlawfully when it blocked impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa in December 2022. Parliament was subsequently required to establish a formal committee to investigate the matter.

For now, the focus shifts to Ramaphosa’s review application in September, which could determine the future of the Section 89 impeachment process.

Picture: X/@PresidencyZA

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Compiled by Betha Madhomu

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