South Africa’s parliament on Tuesday rejected a report by a panel of experts that found evidence that the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, may have circumvented the law by keeping a large stockpile of foreign currency in his farm. With the decision, the South African leader is free from an impeachment process.
The rejection had been expected since last week, when Ramaphosa’s party, the African National Congress (CNA), decided to support the president in Parliament. The party has a comfortable majority in the House and, therefore, an eventual removal of the South African would depend on the support of his own supporters.
The opposition began this Tuesday’s session, asking that the vote be secret, which would make it easier for parliamentarians affiliated with the CNA to vote against the decision of the party leadership – the request, however, was denied.
Even so, four congressmen from the party voted in favor of impeachment; in addition, three others were not in Parliament when they were called, including Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. In all, 214 deputies voted against impeachment and 148 in favor; two others abstained.
Suspicion against the president began in June, after the country’s former spy chief accused Ramaphosa of money laundering and corruption as a result of covering up a major theft of money from the politician’s farm – which is why the case was nicknamed “farmgate”. ” and Phala Phala, name of the property.
Arthur Fraser said thieves broke into the site in February 2020 and made off with at least $4 million in cash, an amount reportedly hidden in furniture like a sofa. Ramaphosa would not have filed a complaint about the robbery, which raised speculation in the local press.
So far, the origin of the amount remains uncertain, but the possibility of the money being related to possible episodes of corruption gave gas to opposition parliamentarians to challenge their legitimacy in office.
Ramaphosa, who has not yet been formally charged with any crime, denies wrongdoing. He alleges that the money comes from the sale of buffaloes and that the amount stolen is much smaller than the value reported by Fraser — it would be US$ 580,000, but the Congressional document disputes the information.
The fact is that assumptions even reached the ANC, which has governed South Africa since 1994, when the apartheid regime in South Africa ended and Nelson Mandela was elected president. For almost 30 years, political fights in the African nation have been based mainly on the backstage of the party, and the current scandal ended up arming Ramaphosa’s opponents in the caption.
On the last day 5, when the National Executive Committee of the party announced that it would support the president, the treasurer-general of the party, Paul Mashatile, said that the decision had not been unanimous. “There was a lot of debate, but we had to end somewhere, and what I’m reporting is where we ended up,” he said.
Despite the decision, it was still uncertain whether the 230 ANC MPs would vote in the same way. Even for that reason, the party tried to contain those affiliates who publicly demonstrated against the current president. An example was the expulsion of Carl Niehaus, a former spokesman for Mandela and a member of the party for the last 43 years, on Monday, accused of misconduct.
This Tuesday’s session, incidentally, may have interfered with the South African president’s visit to the United States. This week, the North American country receives dozens of leaders from African countries at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, in Washington. Unlike most of the other invited leaders, Ramaphosa preferred to send his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naledi Pandor, to the event.
At the same time, the CNA should start, at least officially, the dispute for the leadership of the party. The current president of the acronym is precisely Ramaphosa, but an eventual defeat of the leader could influence the party’s choice of who will run for president in the 2024 elections. At least legally, Ramaphosa may seek re-election.
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