President Cyril Ramaphosa in the danger zone

South Africa’s speaker of parliament will submit an advisory report that will form the basis of an impeachment committee’s investigation into President Cyril Ramaphosa when lawmakers meet on Tuesday.

The submission will come a day after Ramaphosa and officials from his party — the African National Congress — met with Speaker Thoko Didiza to discuss a May 8 Constitutional Court ruling ordering parliament to restart an impeachment process.

The court said that lawmakers erred in 2022 when they failed to establish an impeachment committee to look into the theft of foreign exchange from Ramaphosa’s game farm.

The panel’s report found that Ramaphosa’s handling of the burglary may have breached the constitution.

Didiza is now expected to begin the process of constituting an impeachment committee and establish its terms of reference. The National Assembly’s rules committee will also meet to make changes prescribed by the Constitutional Court.

Parliament’s plans mean that Ramaphosa will have to move fast if he wants to have the panel’s report reviewed by another court, which could stall the work of the impeachment committee.

The ANC’s top decision-making body will convene on Tuesday to discuss the court ruling, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the meeting hasn’t been announced yet.

Didiza is expected later this week to convene a Chief Whips’ Forum that will nominate members from various parties to make up the impeachment committee. 

The speaker of parliament must also consider calls by two political parties — the African Transformation Movement and former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party — to allow a motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa that they want held by secret ballot.

The two would have to enlist the support of most of the parties in the assembly to back them: together they hold less than 20% of the seats, while a no-confidence motion requires a simple majority to pass.