Cape Town – Political rivals of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are reportedly calling for him to step down from his position as president, despite his advances in briefing the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) about the notorious Phala Phala scandal on Friday.
The ANC NEC held a meeting at the Nasrec Expo Centre where the issue was being debated. It was at this meeting that positions against Ramaphosa were vocalised.
According to TimesLIVE, these calls were reportedly led by a senior minister, Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Ramaphosa allegedly chose to touch on the matter during his opening speech.
Dlamini-Zuma said that Ramaphosa needed to show that he respected the ANC step-aside resolution, IOL reported.
“If Phala Phala money was legitimate business money, why was it in a sofa and not in a bank?,” the report quoted Dlamini-Zuma as saying.
NEC members reportedly told TimesLIVE that Ramaphosa said the money that had been stolen at his Phala Phala farm was proceeds of a legitimate business transaction.
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It further reported that some NEC members wanted Ramaphosa to not only step down from his position but they also didn’t want him to get a second term as president.
Meanwhile, EWN reported that Police Minister Bheki Cele stated that he had not been informed about the theft of foreign currency from the farm, at the time of its occurrence.
An independent inquiry panel investigating whether Ramaphosa should face impeachment over an alleged cover-up of a heist at his farmhouse in 2020, was expected to report its findings at the end of November.
This was after the presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed that the president had made his submission to the Section 89 inquiry panel on Sunday, November 6, denying wrongdoing in the scandal.
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Picture: Twitter/ @CyrilRamaphosa
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
