EFF marches in Joburg as top court hears Phala Phala case

Hundreds of EFF supporters painted Johannesburg red in a march to the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, countering suggestions that “the party is dying” amid leadership troubles.

EFF supporters braved the scorching heat in a march from Newtown to the court in Braamfontein.

The red berets want the court to set aside parliament’s decision in December 2022 not to adopt a section 89 panel report, which found prima facie evidence “that the president [Cyril Ramaphosa] may have committed a serious violation” of law in the Phala Phala farm robbery saga. 

Addressing party supporters, EFF leader Julius Malema said he wanted a repeat of the party’s push against former president Jacob Zuma’s “pay back the money” Nkandla case with Ramaphosa.

The EFF won a case against Zuma at the Constitutional Court to pay back some of the money spent on improvements to his home in Nkandla. 

“Every president must be held accountable,” Malema said. “We did the same with Zuma when he spent money on Nkandla.

“We took him to the Constitutional Court, and they said he must pay back the money. The same thing must happen to Ramaphosa,” he said.

The Phala Phala scandal centred on the alleged theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in furniture on Ramaphosa’s Limpopo game farm, which a former intelligence official revealed to police.

The independent panel report found evidence Ramaphosa may have committed misconduct over the incident.

But MPs from the ANC, which had a majority in the National Assembly at the time, voted to reject the report and prevented an impeachment committee from being set up to probe the allegations.

The EFF argues the National Assembly acted unlawfully by not holding the president to account.

Ramaphosa and the ANC say the report did not provide sufficient evidence to support its findings and relied on hearsay, according to a summary of the case published by the Constitutional Court

The first hearing started on Tuesday morning.

Ramaphosa has always denied wrongdoing over the affair and has not been charged with any crime.

Referring to the rapid-fire growth of Zuma’s MK party, which supplanted the EFF as the official opposition after the May 29 general election, Malema told the crowd: “No-one is going to destroy this organisation. No Zuma is going destroy the EFF.

“This organisation is the one that fought Zuma and it will fight him again and win.”

The party has lost several high-profile members in the past three months — including its former deputy leader Floyd Shivambu — who have defected to the MK party. 

“We must defend the EFF,” Malema said. “The MK party’s agenda is to destroy the EFF because they are protecting the white agenda. We must never allow that.”

• The state intends to call 23 witnesses in the case against three suspects accused of the theft at Ramaphosa’s game farm.

Imanuwela David, cleaner Floriana Joseph and her brother Ndilinasho Joseph appeared in Modimolle regional court on Tuesday for a pretrial conference.

The matter was postponed to May 19 for trial.   

The charges relate to the theft of $580,000 (R10.56m) at the farm in Limpopo in 2020.

The Joseph siblings are accused of housebreaking and theft, while David, allegedly the mastermind, is facing charges of conspiracy to commit housebreaking, two counts of housebreaking and money laundering.

David faces an additional charge of money laundering.

The theft came to light in June 2022 when the former director-general at the State Security Agency, Arthur Fraser, opened a case of kidnapping and money laundering against Ramaphosa, Presidential Protection Services head Major-General Wally Rhoode and Crime Intelligence members for allegedly concealing the break-in.

Ramaphosa said the cash was paid to his former farm manager Sylvester Ndlovu by Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa on Christmas Day in 2019 as he wanted to purchase a herd of buffalo.

The president allegedly failed to report the burglary to the police but chose to report it to Rhoode instead. 

Froliana and Ndilishano were granted bail of R5,000 and R10,000, respectively, in November last year.

With additional reporting by Shonisani Tshikalange, TimesLIVE and Reuters