President Cyril Ramaphosa told the nation in a televised address Monday that he will not resign over the Phala Phala farm cash scandal, after South Africa’s Constitutional Court last week revived impeachment proceedings against him and ordered Parliament to re-examine the allegations. Parliament announced plans the following day to establish an impeachment committee to reinvestigate the matter. Ramaphosa said he would contest the report that criticised his handling of the 2020 robbery at his Phala Phala farm and rejected the calls to step down.
The political weight is substantial. The Phala Phala matter has shadowed Ramaphosa’s presidency since 2022 and re-emerged at the worst possible moment for the Government of National Unity, which entered its second year in May 2026 having already absorbed visible tensions between the ANC, DA, and Freedom Front Plus over Black Economic Empowerment, land restitution, and the Expropriation Act. The court’s decision to send the matter back to Parliament forces the GNU to handle accountability questions in the open rather than within ANC structures, which sharpens internal coalition tension.
The opposition response has been split. The Labour Party has called for a structural reset rather than focusing on Ramaphosa personally. Other parties — including the MK Party, EFF, and ActionSA — are pressing for immediate consequences. For diaspora observers, the constitutional moment matters as much as the political one: the Constitutional Court reasserted its authority over a sitting president, and Parliament is now obligated to follow through. How the impeachment committee proceeds, and how the GNU coalition holds together while it does, will set the tone for the rest of the parliamentary term.
Sources: Reuters; Bloomberg; Washington Post; Polity, May 11–12, 2026.