(Johannesburg) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, under threat of impeachment, has no intention of resigning and will fight politically and judicially, his entourage said on Saturday.
His spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, confirmed that he was not going to step aside from power “on the basis of an erroneous report”, referring to the text of a parliamentary committee made public on Wednesday which overwhelms the president in the so-called “Farmgate” or “Phala Phala” affair, named after one of his properties.
Mr Ramaphosa has been the subject of a complaint since June, lodged at a police station by a political opponent, accusing him of trying to cover up a burglary at Phala Phala in 2020, by not reporting it to the police or the tax. But on this occasion, the burglars had found US$580,000 in cash hidden under the cushions of a sofa.
This complaint has not given rise to prosecution to date, the police investigation is continuing.
The president will also challenge the parliamentary report in court.
“It is in the interest […] of our democracy, far beyond the Ramaphosa presidency, that such a flawed report be called into question, especially when used as a benchmark to impeach a sitting head of state,” Mr. Magwenya.
This report considers that Mr. Ramaphosa “could have committed” acts contrary to the law and the Constitution, paving the way for an impeachment procedure which could be voted on Tuesday in Parliament.
Since its broadcast, many calls for the resignation of the president have been launched in the opposition, but also within the ruling party, the ANC. But Ramaphosa, who remains very popular, has also garnered many political, union and business support.
Second term
A crucial deadline in the South African political calendar, the ANC meets on December 16 to designate its next candidate for the presidency in 2024. If however the party, in power since the fall of apartheid and increasingly contested against a background of unemployment and strong inequalities, emerged victorious from the ballot.
Mr. Ramaphosa “took to heart the unequivocal message emanating from the branches of the ruling party which nominated him for a second term at the head of the ANC”, said his spokesman on Saturday evening.
He “understands that this message means that he must pursue economic reforms,” explains Mr. Magwenya. Thus “the president accepted with humility, great care and commitment, this call to continue to be at the service of his organization, the ANC, and of the South African people”.
Ramaphosa thus seems to take the party caciques by surprise, gathered within the all-powerful National Executive Committee (NEC), who are to meet on Monday morning to discuss his fate. Which could mean that he has already received the approval of his main figures.
Several legal experts have criticized the parliamentary report in recent days, which relies heavily on “hearsay”, multiplying suppositions and rhetorical questions.
But the text also raises real questions about the version of the facts put forward by the president, who denies any dishonesty.
According to him, the cash stolen from his house came from the sale to a Sudanese businessman of twenty buffaloes. “Normal practice is to bank the money the next business day,” the report notes.
And why then are these buffaloes, bought by a certain Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim Hazim, still at Phala Phala almost three years after their sale? “There are serious doubts as to whether the stolen foreign currency actually came from their sale,” the report concludes.
Majority in Parliament since 1994, the ANC, weighed down by corruption and a war of factions, has chosen the head of state since the advent of South African democracy.