ANC re-elects Cyril Ramaphosa as leader despite facing accusations

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
19 Dec 2022 19:31

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa garners 2,476 votes and gets re-elected as head of South Africa's ruling African National Congress party.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa (AFP)

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party on Monday re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa as its leader for a second five-year term, despite a brewing scandal over an alleged huge cash theft at his farm.

Ramaphosa garnered 2,476 votes for the post of party president against 1,897 for former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, the ANC elections chief Kgalema Motlanthe announced.

His re-election opens the way to a second term as South Africa's President, as the ANC has an absolute majority in parliament, which selects the head of state.

More than 4,300 delegates gathered at a conference near Johannesburg cast their ballots on Sunday to appoint top officials, including party president, deputy president, chair, and secretary general.

The party's former treasurer Paul Mashatile emerged as deputy president.

Ramaphosa, 70, won the contest despite facing accusations that he allegedly concealed the burglary of a huge amount of cash at his upmarket cattle farm.

The issue has raised questions as to why he was in the possession of so much cash and why he failed to report the theft to the authorities.

He won a reprieve ahead of the conference when the ANC used its majority in parliament to block a possible impeachment inquiry. The proposal was defeated by 214 votes to 148, with two abstentions.

As the nation's vice president, Ramaphosa ascended to the ANC's top job in December 2017 as his predecessor Jacob Zuma battled a corruption scandal that forced him out of the party.

It is noteworthy that Ramaphosa was reported as saying in mid-March that NATO's expansion eastward played a role in the Ukraine crisis.

In April, South Africa abstained from voting on a resolution suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over the war in Ukraine.

On September 17, Ramaphosa argued that the new draft bill that the US Congress was examining to impose new sanctions against Russia would actually risk punishing the entire African continent.