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Opposition Parties Call for Impeachment of South African President

Opposition Parties Call for Impeachment of South African President

South Africa’s opposition parties today called for a vote of accountability and the President’s resignation in the debate over a parliamentary report which concluded that Cyril Ramaphosa may have violated the Constitution and anti-corruption laws.

The leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, John Steenhuisen, said he hoped “Parliament will vote to hold the President accountable today”.

Steenhuisen stressed that “members of the ANC Government must not repeat the previous practices of shielding their leader from parliamentary accountability”.

The leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, Julius Malema, a former youth leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), went further in criticising the governance of President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying that “it is an undeniable fact that you continue to do your business as head of state”.

“You are an enemy of the Constitution of South Africa,” Julius Malema declared, questioning whether President Ramaphosa “is a secret agent serving international economic interests” and the “white capital monopoly”.

The EFF party is the third largest opposition party in South Africa with 44 MPs, representing 10.79%.

“President Ramaphosa was the only hope we had in the ANC,” said the Free Inkatha Party (IFP), the fourth largest political force in the country with 10 MPs (3.38%).

Bantu Holomisa, leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) with two MPs (0.45 percent), a former member of the ruling ANC and ally of the historic leader Nelson Mandela, called for a “full investigation” by parliament into the Phala Phala scandal.

The various opposition parties in the South African parliament stressed that Ramaphosa had “chosen”, “once again”, the ANC party, of which he is also president, “over the nation” in the way he has managed the scandal.

At the start of today’s special session, the leader of the small opposition African Transformation Movement (ATM) party alleged that MPs received “death threat” messages coercing them to vote against the passage of the report, which could pave the way for the impeachment process of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula confirmed that the case has been reported to the police.

Vuyolwethu Zungula, whose ATM party holds two seats in the South African parliament (0.44%), where the ruling ANC holds a majority (57.5%) of the 400 MPs, was speaking moments before the debate began thirty minutes late this afternoon in Cape Town, the seat of the South African parliament.

“The only rational decision that parliament can make is to approve a committee to impeach the President,” the opposition MP said later in his speech.

“How can parliament reject a report by a committee it mandated,” he questioned.

“A leader of a party of two MPs cannot give instructions to a giant party like the ANC on how it should go about its business,” responded a ruling party MP, before the parliamentary debate began.

The session is being held in Cape Town’s City Hall due to the partial destruction of the National Assembly building by fire earlier this year.

If the report is approved, Ramaphosa will be the first post-apartheid president to face ‘impeachment’ proceedings.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula appointed the parliamentary enquiry panel after a motion by ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula called for Ramaphosa’s impeachment based on “a serious breach of the Constitution or the law”.

The parliamentary report, authored by an independent panel led by former chief justice Justice Sandile Ngcobo, concluded that Ramaphosa may have violated the Constitution and anti-corruption laws through deals at his Phala Phala farm in 2020.

Ramaphosa, who is seeking re-election as the party’s leader at the elective national congress scheduled for between 16 and 20 this month in Johannesburg, has denied wrongdoing.

See Also

Re-election to the ANC leadership will allow him to run again for the presidency of South Africa in 2024.

In its report, the enquiry panel raised questions about where the money came from and why it was hidden from financial authorities, also pointing to a potential conflict of interest between the president’s business and state interests.

The South African head of state maintained that the money is proceeds from the sale of an unspecified number of buffaloes to a Sudanese businessman in the amount of $580,000 (549,000 euros), he pointed out.

Lusa

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