South African lawgivers are to bounce Tuesday on whether to start indictment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a report that says he held undeclared foreign currency at his ranch in 2020.
The pivotal vote comes after a ruinous administrative report contended that Ramaphosa immorally hid at least $580,000 in cash in a lounge at his Phala Phala game estate. It said he didn’t report the theft of the plutocrat to police in order to avoid questions over how he got the foreign currency and why he hadn’t declared it to authorities.
The report has brought Ramaphosa’s opponents — opposition parties and indeed rivals within his party, the ruling African National Congress — to call for him to step down.
Lawgivers will need a two- thirds maturity to launch indictment proceedings against Ramaphosa which is doubtful because his ANC party decided last week to stand by him. The ANC holds 230 of the 400 seats in congress so the ruling party can block any move to start the indictment proceedings.
The ANC has said its lawgivers will oppose any moves to have Ramaphosa impeached, saying it’ll bounce against the relinquishment of the report.
The administrative vote comes in a week where Ramaphosa will also be fighting for his political life as he seeks to bere-elected the leader of the ANC at its public conference starting in Johannesburg on Friday.
The conference will also handpick members of the party’s National Executive Committee, which is the party’s loftiest decision- making body.
