South Africa's Constitutional Court on Friday ordered the country's Parliament to reconsider impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa .

The ruling stems from an allegation that $580,000 in US banknotes, hidden in a couch, was stolen from Ramaphosa's private Phala Phala game farm in 2020.

The court did not rule on the substance of the allegations. Instead, it examined whether lawmakers acted lawfully in rejecting a recommendation from an independent panel appointed by Parliament to proceed with an impeachment inquiry into claims that Ramaphosa broke the law in his handling of the theft.

"It is declared that the vote of the National Assembly taken on 13 December 2022...…