UPDATE 3-South Africa's top court revives impeachment process against president

South Africa's highest court on Friday revived impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a scandal in which a large amount of foreign currency was stolen ‌from inside a sofa in his farmhouse in 2020. In 2022 Ramaphosa's political party blocked an impeachment committee from being set up to further investigate the incident, which raised questions about how Ramaphosa acquired so much physical cash, whether he declared it and why he stuffed it in furniture instead of depositing it at a ‌bank.

Ramaphosa, in power since 2018, has always denied wrongdoing over the scandal, dubbed "Farmgate" by local media, and has said the money was proceeds from the ‌sale of some buffaloes on his game ranch. A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE ANY IMPEACHMENT VOTE

The court said the move to block the impeachment process was inconsistent with the constitution and the committee should now be established. Ramaphosa said in a statement that he respected the court's judgment.

Political analysts said there was still a long way to go in the impeachment process and ⁠Ramaphosa was ​likely to survive if the matter was ⁠put to a vote in the lower house of parliament. An impeachment vote requires a two-thirds majority to pass, and even though Ramaphosa's African National Congress (ANC) party lost its majority in ⁠a 2024 election, it still has well over one-third of the seats in the National Assembly.

Farmgate broke when a former intelligence official walked into a police station and alleged ​Ramaphosa had tried to cover up the theft of about $4 million in foreign currency stashed at his Phala Phala game farm. Ramaphosa, a wealthy ⁠businessman before he became president, admitted there had been a break-in but said the thieves only stole $580,000.

RAMAPHOSA STILL HAS SUPPORT IN ANC AND COALITION An independent panel of experts in 2022 found ⁠preliminary evidence ​Ramaphosa may have committed misconduct, which led some opponents to call for his resignation.

Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said the impeachment committee's work would be more detailed, likely taking several months. The opposition party that brought the case to the constitutional court, ⁠the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), wrote to the speaker of the National Assembly on Friday asking her to set up the impeachment committee immediately.

"I ⁠don't think the (panel's) report is going ... ⁠any further (towards) impeachment," political analyst Oscar van Heerden said. "Ramaphosa still (enjoys) majority support (in his party), and they are not going to want to upset things by (taking) this to its logical conclusion," he said, adding that neither would the ANC's key ‌coalition partners like the ‌Democratic Alliance.

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