The Forum for South Africa (FOSA) has joined calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign immediately, accusing him of using legal processes and public funds to avoid accountability over the findings of the Section 89 independent panel.
The call comes after Ramaphosa filed an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court on Friday seeking to halt the commencement of an impeachment inquiry until his separate review application challenging the Section 89 panel's report has been finalised.
The independent panel previously found that there was prima facie evidence that the president may have committed serious violations and recommended that Parliament consider establishing an impeachment inquiry.
FOSA leader Tebogo Mashilompane criticised Ramaphosa's court action, arguing that the president should allow the parliamentary process to continue if he believes he will ultimately be cleared of wrongdoing.
"We don't have a problem with people exercising their own rights, but without abusing state resources," Mashilompane said.
"Because the outcome is clear from Section 89; they said there's prima facie evidence here that the President should account for something. And if indeed the President is not guilty or is feeling morally okay, he should allow the process to go on because he knows that he'll be vindicated."
Mashilompane further accused Ramaphosa of using taxpayers' money to fund legal challenges aimed at delaying the process.
"But because he knows that whatever happened, he's guilty of, he runs to the court and then with whose money? With the taxpayers' money – that's where we've got a problem. He abuses the taxpayers' money," he said.
Ramaphosa's urgent application seeks to suspend any impeachment proceedings pending the outcome of his legal challenge to the Section 89 panel's findings, setting the stage for another legal and political battle over the future of the president's accountability process.