MKP calls ConCourt dismissal of Phala Phala interdict appeal ‘lazy’

MKP calls ConCourt dismissal of Phala Phala interdict appeal 'lazy' The MKP on Thursday said the Constitution Court's decision to dismiss an application asking for direct access to appeal the halting of the Impeachment Inquiry against President Cyril Ramaphosa was "lazy". The apex court refused the application, brought by the African Transformation Movement, to overturn last month's High Court decision, which granted Ramaphosa an urgent interdict to halt the impeachment process. As a result, Parliament ceased its public hearings into the Phala Phala game farm scandal. The Constitutional Court concluded that it is not in the interest of justice to hear the matter at this stage. An imminent judicial review decision in the Western Cape Division of the High Court will likely render the interim interdict moot, the order read. The MKP said it was concerned by the ruling and regarded the decision as a "regrettably evasive judicial response". "The Constitutional Court has missed an opportunity to pronounce decisively on whether a lower court may interfere with, suspend, circumvent or effectively overrule a decision or process flowing directly from the Constitutional Court itself. That is not a peripheral procedural issue. It goes directly to the hierarchy, authority and integrity of our constitutional judicial system. At a time of growing public concern about whether powerful office-bearers are subjected to the same standards of accountability as ordinary citizens, decisions of this nature inevitably deepen public scepticism," the party rationalised. It stressed the need for the judiciary to stay independent and said silence on constitutional questions raises uncertainty than clarity.