'Cyril is protecting future presidents': Presidency defends Phala Phala bid as grilling intensifies
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is seeking to halt an impeachment inquiry related to the Phala Phala scandal. His legal team argues that the report forming the basis of the inquiry is flawed and that he is protecting the integrity of the presidency for future officeholders.
Why it matters
The case sets a critical legal precedent for the standards and procedures required to impeach a sitting head of state in South Africa.
A president acting selflessly to protect the office for all who will hold it after him, or a man clinging to power who cannot stomach the "humiliation of accountability"?
These dramatically different portraits of Cyril Ramaphosa emerged on Wednesday, one painted by his spin doctor, the other by a host of political parties in the Western Cape High Court.
It is in this court that Ramaphosa is asking for the impeachment inquiry against him to be stopped in its tracks.
This is because he is separately asking the same court to throw out the report on which the Section 89 process rests, a case that will only be heard in September.
Advocate Wim Trengove SC , for Ramaphosa, will have the last word when he exercises his right of reply on Thursday morning before judges André le Grange, Matthew Francis and Diane Davis.
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