Johannesburg – President Cyril Ramaphosa was in talks with South Africa’s ruling party late Thursday as pressure mounted for him to quit or be forced from office over a cash burglary at his farm that he allegedly covered up.
Ramaphosa “is looking at a number of options and… consulting with a number of role players” in the African National Congress (ANC), presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told journalists.
The talks were unfolding on the eve of an emergency session of the party’s decision-making body to discuss the escalating crisis.
“All options are on the table,” Magwenya said.
He said an announcement from Ramaphosa was “imminent”, without adding when exactly it would be made.
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But the president was not “panicking” and his decision would not be “rushed”, Magwenya said.
It would be made in the interest of the country and the government’s “stability”.
The national currency, the rand, fell nearly 3% earlier as Ramaphosa cancelled a scheduled question-and-answer session in parliament following the publication of a report into the scandal.
A group representing business organisations expressed “serious concern” that Ramaphosa may have “transgressed various laws”.
“This is a significant crisis for our country and poses high risks that will see further erosion of confidence,” said Business Unity South Africa.
Opposition politicians and critics of Ramaphosa fired a volley of demands that he resign.
Impeachment risk
Ramaphosa has been under fire since June, when a former spy boss filed a complaint with the police, alleging Ramaphosa had hidden a burglary at his farm at Phala Phala in northeastern South Africa from the authorities.
Instead, he allegedly organised for the robbers to be kidnapped and bribed into silence.
The vast sum stashed at the farm has cast a dark shadow over Ramaphosa’s bid to portray himself as graft-free after the corruption-stained era of Jacob Zuma.
A three-person inquiry on Wednesday submitted a report to parliament in which it concluded Ramaphosa “may have committed” serious violations and misconduct.
The report will be examined by parliament on December 6.
That debate could open the way to a vote on impeaching Ramaphosa – a term that in South Africa means to remove from office.
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Ramaphosa, in his submission to the panel, steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.
But the scandal, complete with details of more than half-a-million dollars stashed beneath farm cushions, has come at the worst possible moment for him.
On December 16, he contests elections for the ANC presidency – a position that also holds the key to staying on as national president.
The ANC said in a statement that its National Executive Committee would hold urgent talks at 1200 GMT on Friday.
Ramaphosa took office at the helm of Africa’s most industrialised economy in 2018 promising to root out corruption which had taken root in state institutions.
He now risks becoming the third ANC leader forced out since the party came to power after the end of apartheid in 1994.
Impeachment means the removal of a sitting president through a vote supported by at least two-thirds of lawmakers.
Grave violation of the constitution, serious misconduct or inability to perform the functions of office are the permitted grounds for an impeachment motion.
Ramaphosa’s predecessor Zuma dodged four impeachment votes until his ANC party forced him to resign over graft in 2018.
The ANC also forced Thabo Mbeki out of office in 2008 in the middle of a power struggle.
Cash in sofa
South Africans have been riveted by details from the investigation, particularly over $580 000 in cash stolen from beneath sofa cushions at the president’s ranch.
The sum was payment made by a Sudanese citizen who had bought buffaloes.
Farm staff initially locked the money in an office safe, said Ramaphosa.
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But a manager then decided that the “safest place” to store it would be under the cushions of a sofa inside Ramaphosa’s residence at the farm, he said.
Ramaphosa said accusations against him were “without any merit” and asked the panel not to take the matter “any further”.
But the panel concluded that Ramaphosa had failed to report the theft directly to police, acted in a way inconsistent with his office and exposed himself to a conflict between his official responsibilities and his private business, it said.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@PresidencyZA
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