Ramaphosa set to ward off impeachment vote over corruption claims

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Dec 2022 09:06

Most MPs seem to be backing the South African President despite the matter being profoundly polarized.

President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa

Over the past three days, the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa said he would resist calls for his resignation amid the release of a report accusing him of the alleged covering up of the theft of vast amounts of cash at his game farm, but the Parliament is still set to vote on Tuesday on his impeachment.

Most MPs seem to be backing Ramaphosa despite the matter being profoundly polarized.

Though the President faced mounting pressure to leave office over the past week, Ramaphosa appeared relaxed on Sunday as he spoke to reporters and said he had been excluded from a meeting in which ANC members were discussing a case against him.

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa says he has been told to recuse himself from the national working committee meeting currently taking place at Nasrec.

He says he will attend the NEC tomorrow and it will be up to them to decide his fate.

Ramaphosa says that’s all he can say. pic.twitter.com/bhrjXBn2p2
— Kgothatso Madisa (@kgmadisa) December 4, 2022

According to the report, Ramaphosa is alleged of kidnapping burglars and buying them to remain silent in order to cover up a $4 million robbery from his Phala Phala farm in 2020 - charges which he categorically denies.

A former spy had filed a complaint in June alleging that the President hid the February 2020 burglary from the police.

Ramaphosa explained that the stash of money hidden at the farm was a payment from a Sudanese millionaire to purchase buffaloes.

Ramaphosa still has not been charged with any crimes as an investigation is underway, and the ANC has already appointed three lawyers to look into the matter.

The ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) is expected to meet on Monday to further discuss the President's future, and a vote will take place on Tuesday to decide whether to remove the President from office or not.

"President Ramaphosa is not resigning based on a flawed report, neither is he stepping aside," said Vincent Magwenya, the President's Spokesperson.

"It is in the long-term interest... of our constitutional democracy, well beyond the Ramaphosa presidency, that such a clearly flawed report is challenged, especially when it's being used as a point of reference to remove a sitting head of state," he added.

For the impeachment process to be launched, a majority of votes is required, and for the President to be fully impeached, it would require about a two-thirds majority.

Ramaphosa's government has often been criticized for refusing to condemn Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

On March 17, Ramaphosa was reported saying that NATO's expansion eastward played a role in the Ukraine crisis.

"A view shared by many leading scholars on international relations [is] that the war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from among its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater instability in the region," he said.

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

"If the Countering Malign Russia Activities [in Africa] bill were to become a US law, the law could have the unintended consequence of punishing the African continent for efforts to advance development and growth," Ramaphosa said.