Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa has survived an impeachment vote in the National Assembly.
Despite dissension brewing in the ANC ranks ahead of Tuesday’s crunch vote, not enough members of the governing party were willing to support the opposition’s motion.
The ATM’s motion was defeated by 214 votes to 148, with two abstentions.
This comes four days before the ANC’s national conference, where Ramaphosa is contesting to remain the party’s president, with disgraced former health minister Zweli Mkhize his biggest challenger.
Tuesday’s vote followed an independent panel, chaired by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, which found that Ramaphosa had a prima facie case to answer regarding the theft of foreign currency stuffed in a couch at his game farm, Phala Phala.
Ramaphosa failed to convince the panel that, after the burglary, he had acted in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
Ramaphosa has taken the panel’s report on legal review directly to the Constitutional Court, but this didn’t stop Parliament from dealing with the matter.
A legal opinion to Parliament stated they may proceed with the process, irrespective of Ramaphosa’s legal challenge.
Phala Phala became a burning issue in June after the former director-general at the State Security Agency, Arthur Fraser, opened a kidnapping and money laundering case against Ramaphosa, Presidential Protection Unit head Major-General Wally Rhoode, and Crime Intelligence members for allegedly concealing a burglary at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in February 2020.
According to Fraser’s affidavit, Ramaphosa had at least $4 million in cash stashed in a couch at his game farm – and then played a part in a cover-up following an allegedly illegal investigation into the matter.
This was followed by the ATM’s motion – and Phala Phala has since become the stick with which Ramaphosa has been beaten by his critics in the ANC.
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