JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party says it will vote against any attempts to impeach President Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament on Tuesday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa leaves an African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday Dec. 5, 2022. |
Ramaphosa has taken legal
action on Monday to challenge the parliamentary report that suggested he may
have broken anti-corruption laws by having a large sum of dollars at his Phala
Phala farm and not reporting its theft. The report recommended that Ramaphosa
be impeached.
The report was drafted by an
independent panel appointed to probe allegations leveled by the country’s
former intelligence head, Arthur Fraser, that Ramaphosa tried to cover up the
theft of an estimated $4 million from his Phala Phala ranch.
Fraser accused Ramaphosa of
money laundering and violating the country’s tax and foreign exchange control
laws.
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Briefing the media Monday
following a meeting of its National Executive Committee that discussed
Ramaphosa’s situation, the ANC said it would not support the report which calls
for impeachment proceedings.
“We will vote against it
because, as you are aware, that report will set other processes in motion, like
impeachment, and we are not supporting the process that will lead to the
impeachment of the president,” said ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile.
In papers filed with the
Constitutional Court, Ramaphosa has asked the court to set aside the report,
saying “the panel and its conclusions are seriously flawed, thus making the
recommendations irrational.”
In court papers, Ramaphosa
said “the panel misconceived its mandate, misjudged the information placed
before it and misinterpreted the four charges advanced against me.”
Ramaphosa is facing calls from
his detractors within the party and from opposition parties to step down as a
result of the report.
He has denied any wrongdoing,
claiming that the money was from the sale of animals on his farm and that he
had reported the matter to the head of his presidential protection unit.
The ANC’s national executive
committee, with 86 members, is the party’s highest decision-making body and has
the power to force the president to resign and to instruct its lawmakers on how
to vote on various matters.
The ANC still maintains a
majority of seats in Parliament, enough to block a vote by all opposition
parties to begin impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa.
Earlier, Speaker Nosiviwe
Mapisa-Nqakula announced that a request by one of the opposition parties to
have a secret ballot had been declined by Parliament.
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