Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa has, for now, abandoned any legal challenge to the Section 89 panel report, which found he may have a case to answer regarding the theft of US dollars which were stashed at his Phala Phala farm.
Ramaphosa had earlier this year lost his chance of direct access to the Constitutional Court, where he hoped to challenge the report’s findings.
The apex court said the president was wrong in assuming that it was the only direct avenue that he had to challenge the report.
If he sought to continue with a legal challenge, he would have to launch a High Court application, Constitutional Court judges told him.
On Monday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said he would not challenge the report because he believed that it, and its legal implications, were now “moot”.
In December, Parliament voted on whether the report should be adopted, and the majority of MPs voted against this move, which could have seen the president face an impeachment process.
Magwenya cited this as the reason why Ramaphosa believed the legal implications of the report were no longer relevant, and that he saw no reason to continue challenging it.
The report had no legal bearing anymore after the majority of MPs rejected it in December, Magwenya said.
The Section 89 panel report found that Ramaphosa may have a case to answer regarding the theft of millions of rands in US dollars from his farm in Limpopo in 2020.
“The decision that the National Assembly took to reject the motion to refer the panel report to an impeachment committee renders that report moot. It is not practical of legal consequence at the moment for as long as that decision stands,” Magwenya said.
Ramaphosa was not against bringing a court application again if matters surrounding the report changed, he added.
Magwenya was giving a weekly presidential briefing on Monday, where he also touched on developments in the awarding of powers to Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokhopa.
The matter surrounding the powers of the minister has dominated the political environment for months, ever since his appointment in February and the increase in load shedding.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa had now finalised Ramokgopa’s powers with a signed proclamation.
The Government Gazette confirming the minister’s responsibilities would be sent out soon, Magwenya said.
The president’s spokesperson defended the long wait, saying it had been necessary because Ramokgopa’s position was a temporal portfolio and that the “harmony” of government streams had to be balanced.
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