On Friday morning, all eyes will be on South Africa’s Constitutional Court in Braamfontein as Chief Justice Mandisa Maya and her fellow justices deliver a judgment the country has been waiting 521 days to hear.
By 8am, the stone plaza outside the court will begin to fill with EFF supporters in red berets gathering near the entrance on Kotze Street. ANC supporters and civil society activists will also arrive carrying placards and banners. Television crews will stake out positions along the sandstone walls.
The Constitutional Court was built using bricks from the demolished awaiting-trial wing of the former prison. Most of the old prison’s stairwells were kept and incorporated into the new building as a reminder of the Constitution’s transformative aspirations. Inside the main chamber, a row of horizontal windows sits at head height inside but at ground level outside, so those in the courtroom see the feet of passersby moving above the judges’ heads. It is a deliberate reminder that justice serves the people.
The case relates to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the theft of foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm. Ramaphosa has maintained the money was payment from a Sudanese businessman for the purchase of 20 buffalo. However, the Section 89 Independent Panel chaired by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo found significant gaps in that explanation, including why the animals remained on the farm more than two years later and the absence of official tax records.
The panel found prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have committed serious constitutional violations, including failure to report the theft through proper legal channels, potential conflict of interest through active involvement in private business, and abuse of office through a secret investigation that reached as far as Namibia.
IPID confirmed the transgressions, finding that Major General W.P. Rhoode failed to register or ensure that a case docket of housebreaking and theft was opened. Rhoode remains the head of the Presidential Protection Unit today.