The South African National Assembly on Monday delayed by a week a keenly watched parliamentary vote that could lead to the impeachment of President Cyril Ramaphosa, as his party rallied around the embattled leader.
In an eventful day, Ramaphosa, who has been under heavy political pressure, mounted an 11th-hour legal bid to have a damning report on an alleged cover-up of a cash robbery at his farm annulled.
Top African National Congress (ANC) leaders who had met to discuss his future vowed to stand by the president and oppose any motion seeking to remove him.
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The assembly was yesterday to debate and vote on the report in a session that could lead to his impeachment.
However, during a late-night urgent meeting of the parliament’s programming committee, lawmakers unanimously agreed that the unprecedented sitting was too important to be conducted in a hybrid format.
They agreed to meet on Tuesday next week, to allow time for lawmakers to travel to Cape Town to physically sit and vote through an open ballot and a roll call, South African National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The delay is unlikely to change the stance of the ANC, which agreed earlier it “will not support that vote,” ANC acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile said.
Mashatile said the decision to vote “against the adoption of the report” was reached after the ANC’s most senior leaders “fully and frankly” debated it.
Earlier on Monday, Ramaphosa had filed a petition to the South African Constitutional Court seeking to have the investigative report “reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside,” court documents show.
The report by an independent panel found that Ramaphosa “may have committed” serious contraventions and misconduct.
The scandal erupted in June when South Africa’s former spy boss filed a complaint with the police alleging that Ramaphosa had concealed the 2020 theft of a huge haul of cash from his Phala Phala farm.
He accused the president of having organized for the burglars to be kidnapped and bribed into silence.
Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing.
He said the cash — more than US$500,000, stashed beneath sofa cushions — was payment for buffaloes bought by a Sudanese businessman.
His explanations did not convince the parliament-sanctioned independent panel, which raised questions about the source of the cash.
The parliament sitting is a step that could lead to a vote on forcing Ramaphosa from office.
To initiate an impeachment vote would require a simple majority in the National Assembly, where the ANC has 230 out of 400 seats. The impeachment vote itself would need a two-thirds majority to succeed.
In the meantime, “the president continues with his duties as president of the ANC and the republic,” Mashatile said.
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