South Africa’s parliament has scheduled for Monday the first meeting of an impeachment committee that will investigate allegations surrounding President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “Farmgate” scandal, the Democratic Alliance (DA) party said on Thursday.
The meeting marks the next stage in the impeachment process against Ramaphosa, which was revived this month by the Constitutional Court, in a setback for the South African leader, for whom the affair has been a major embarrassment during his presidency.
Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing in the scandal, in which bundles of cash were stolen from a sofa on his farm in 2020, raising questions about where the money came from and why it was hidden in furniture.
“The good thing is that parliament seems to be moving forward,” said George Michalakis, the DA’s parliamentary leader.
According to him, the first task of the committee’s 31 members will be to elect a chairperson, adding that “the DA’s strong position is that it should not be someone from the ANC.”
The DA is the second-largest party in the coalition government with Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC), but it remains critical of the president and has stated that it will hold him accountable if any wrongdoing is found.
Source: Reuters
