(Johannesburg) Is he staying or is he throwing in the towel? The fate of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, entangled in a scandal, is the subject of a thousand predictions. After the hypothesis of a resignation, many indicators leaned on the side of stability on Friday.
The caciques of Nelson Mandela’s party, weighed down by corruption and internal divisions, meet Friday in Johannesburg to discuss the future of their president. A majority in Parliament since 1994, the ANC has chosen the head of state since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy.
The president’s spokesman had warned Thursday that Mr. Ramaphosa would make an “imminent” announcement, while warning that the time was too serious to make decisions “in haste”.
Cyril Ramaphosa spent all day Thursday consulting his party’s heavyweights, listening to advice, weighing his supporters.
In the morning, “relatives” had told the South African media that he would not fight to stay in his post. But by the evening, concern over his departure seemed to have caused a sudden reversal, with business and much of the ANC flying to his aid.
“The decision-makers at the head of the ANC do not want him to leave,” a party executive told AFP on condition of anonymity.
On Friday morning, even the head of the Anglican Church pleaded in favor of the man whom South Africans colloquially call “Cyril”.
“No one should be above the law, but making a final judgment on a person based on what is effectively a preliminary commission of inquiry, which has not made a final determination of the facts, could lead to anarchy”, argues Bishop Thabo Makgoba, Desmond Tutu’s successor.
Cyril or chaos
“Cyril” or chaos. This is what worries many South Africans, including in the opposition, and the major players in the continent’s leading industrial power. The rand, the South African currency, lost 3% of its value on Thursday.
However, everything seemed to be going well for the president at the start of the week, a fortnight before a crucial ANC conference. He left as the big favorite to gain confidence for a second term in 2024, if however the party, faced with growing disenchantment, wins the ballot.
But on Wednesday, a parliamentary committee published a damning report on the Phala Phala scandal, named after a property the president has a personal fortune, where he raises cattle, his second passion after politics.
Mr Ramaphosa, 70, ‘may have committed’ ‘violations and misconduct’ in connection with a 2020 burglary at this farmhouse which revealed bundles of $580,000 hidden under the cushions from a couch in “a little-used guest bedroom,” according to the report.
He thus finds himself under the threat of impeachment proceedings. Parliament is meeting on Tuesday to vote whether or not to initiate a procedure to this effect.
The ANC enjoys a comfortable majority there, but will it unite around its president? Thursday, several of its influential members gave the pledge, multiplying the interventions in the media and on social networks.
“We will go to Parliament on Tuesday, we will reject this report and life will resume as before”, assures confident MP Mathole Motshekga, an outspoken supporter of the president.
“The report does not say that he must answer for this affair, he says that he could have to answer for it”, he nuances with AFP, assuring that now “the affair is political”.
The scandal erupted in June when a former intelligence official, close to opponents of Ramaphosa within the ANC, filed a complaint. Burglars, neutralized in February 2020 in Phala Phala, revealed the presence of these camouflaged bundles, assures the complaint, accusing the president of not having reported the incident either to the police or to the tax authorities.
Mr. Ramaphosa has always denied. According to him, a Sudanese businessman bought buffaloes in his field and paid in cash. An employee then saw fit to hide the money under cushions rather than in a safe to which several employees had access.