Ramaphosa Holds the Line: Phala Phala Judicial Review Stalls Impeachment, Derails ANC Plot to Remove Him

By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief, The Azanian  

14 May 2026, Johannesburg

JOHANNESBURG – President Cyril Ramaphosa has refused to be pushed out. And with one decision, he’s turned the ANC’s internal war on its head.

On Monday night, Ramaphosa told the nation he will not resign. He will not be forced out by “those who seek to reverse the renewal of our society, the rebuilding of our institutions and the prosecution of corruption.”

More importantly, he announced he is taking the Section 189 panel report on the Phala Phala farm theft to judicial review. That move changes everything. 

The judicial review effectively halts Parliament’s impeachment process.

Without a panel report standing, there is no basis for Parliament to proceed. For Ramaphosa’s detractors inside the ANC, the plan to remove him in a matter of weeks has collapsed before it started.

Sources inside Luthuli House confirm that a coordinated push was underway to force Ramaphosa out, or at minimum, to convince him to step down. The Phala Phala report gave them the political ammunition. Calls for him to step down had been gaining momentum, fueled by frustration over the ANC’s continued electoral decline under his leadership.

But Ramaphosa’s refusal to resign and his decision to challenge the report in court have bought him time. And in politics, time is power. His supporters see it as a necessary stand against a factional ambush. His opponents see it as a president clinging to office while the party bleeds votes.

The fallout is immediate. Ramaphosa will not attend Wednesday evening’s ANC National Executive Committee meeting in Cape Town. The NEC will sit without its president, debating the future of the organization while the man at the center of the storm is absent.

That absence is deliberate. It signals that Ramaphosa is fighting this battle on his own terms, in the courts and in the public arena, not in a closed NEC room where he could be cornered.

With Ramaphosa refusing to go, the succession contest has exploded into the open. 

Deputy President Paul Mashatile, Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi are all named as contenders positioning themselves for what comes next. Some in the party have even floated a caretaker arrangement, with names like former caretaker president Kgalema Motlanthe and National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza being circulated.

The idea of a caretaker president suggests that even within the ANC, there are those who believe Ramaphosa’s term is untenable. But with the impeachment process stalled, that conversation has been pushed back.

This is not just about Phala Phala. It’s about the future of the ANC. 

Ramaphosa argues he is defending the project of renewal and institutional rebuilding. His critics argue that under his watch, the ANC has lost its electoral dominance and its moral authority. 

For his supporters, his decision to stay is a victory that prevents the party from collapsing into chaos before 2029. For his opponents, it’s a delay that prolongs the crisis.

The judicial review will take months. That gives Ramaphosa breathing space to govern, to rebuild, and to reset the political narrative. But it doesn’t resolve the deeper problem: the ANC is divided, and the division is now public.

If the courts rule in Ramaphosa’s favor, he emerges stronger. If they don’t, the push to remove him will return, harder and faster.

For now, the president is still in office. The plan to remove him quickly has failed. The knives are still out. But Ramaphosa has made it clear: he will not leave without a fight.

And in the ANC, fights like this don’t end with a press statement. They end at conference, with votes, and with a new balance of power. That fight has already begun.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is ready to rumble his detractors. "I will not resign...I didn't steal any public funds," he said when addressing the nation on Monday.