National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza has filed a notice to abide in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s urgent interdict application in the Western Cape High Court, confirming that her office will not actively oppose the bid to halt the Section 89 impeachment proceedings linked to the Phala Phala matter. The urgent application was filed by Ramaphosa on June 12, 2026.
Ramaphosa is seeking an interdict to pause the impeachment committee’s work until his separate judicial review of the 2022 Section 89 independent panel report is concluded.
The review is scheduled to be heard between September 2 and September 4, 2026. The urgent interdict application is set down for hearing in the Western Cape High Court on July 15 and 16, 2026.
Didiza had previously rejected Ramaphosa’s request to voluntarily suspend the committee’s work, stating that committees determine their own agendas.
However, the 31-member impeachment committee, chaired by Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana, resolved on June 18, 2026, to oppose the interdict after receiving legal advice and will proceed with its own court filing.
The matter follows a May 2026 Constitutional Court ruling that set aside the National Assembly’s 2022 decision not to proceed with impeachment over the Phala Phala farm theft matter and ordered the process to continue through a properly constituted impeachment committee.
The court will now determine whether the proceedings should be paused pending Ramaphosa’s judicial review application.
