South Africa's Supreme Court on Friday overturned a parliamentary vote that ended impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa in a $4 million cash theft scandal.
Ramaphosa is accused of hiding from police and tax authorities a burglary and theft in 2020 involving large sums of foreign currency allegedly hidden in furniture at his luxurious farm in Phala Phala, in the northern province of Limpopo.
An independent commission later said he "could have committed" serious violations and professional misconduct.
But Parliament, then controlled by his party, the African National Congress (ANC), refused in 2022 to open impeachment proceedings that could have forced him to leave office.
"It is declared that the vote of the National Assembly of December 13, 2022... is unconstitutional, invalid, and that it is annulled", declared the President of the Constitutional Court, Mandisa Maya.
She ordered that the independent commission's report be forwarded to an impeachment commission.
The Court's decision follows a complaint filed by the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party.
The ruling risks putting further pressure on Ramaphosa and the ANC, who are losing support due to broken political promises and persistent accusations of corruption and poor governance, ahead of the November 4 municipal elections.
The presidency said it had "taken note of the judgment" and that Ramaphosa respected it.
"President Ramaphosa maintains that no one is above the law and that any allegations must be the subject of due process, without fear, favoritism and prejudice", she said in a statement.
"Hard and deep questions"
The attorney general dropped money laundering and corruption charges against Ramaphosa in 2024.
EFF leader Julius Malema welcomed Friday's decision, saying: We are happy that our Constitution has won. "
"The ANC itself must decide whether it wants to be led by a president who is weighed down by this dark cloud", Malema told the court in Johannesburg, the financial capital.
Mr Ramaphosa would face "very tough and in-depth questions" if impeachment proceedings were opened, he added.
Unlike 2022, the ANC no longer has a majority in Parliament.
Reduced to 40% of seats after a crushing defeat in the 2024 general election, Nelson Mandela's former liberation movement was forced to form an often difficult coalition with nine other parties.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), the coalition's second party, said it would "participate fully and constructively in the work of the impeachment committee".
"We will rely on the facts, on the evidence presented to the commission and on our constitutional duty. We will not prejudge the outcome. But we will also not allow anyone, no matter how high in office, to be placed above accountability", DA chief Geordin Hill-Lewis said in a communicated.
The scandal erupted in 2022 when the country's former intelligence chief filed a police report, alleging that Ramaphosa had covered up the theft of money that was under the cushions of a sofa on his ranch.
Ramaphosa, who denied any wrongdoing, allegedly organized the kidnapping of the burglars and bribed them to keep quiet, when he should have reported the theft to the police.
The president, 73, disputed the amount at stake and said only $580,000 from the sale of 20 buffalo to a Sudanese businessman had been stolen.
