South Africa’s Parliament on Monday postponed voting for a week on whether to launch impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa in connection to a corruption scandal, reported The Reuters.
The National Assembly president Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Monday said the vote was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but the parliament members have all agreed to reschedule the voting on December 13.
Mapisa-Nqakula justified the move by the need to give each elected official time to travel to Cape Town, the seat of Parliament, for a face-to-face vote.
Earlier on Monday, South Africa’s ruling party African National Congress (ANC), which has governed the country since 1994, gave its full support to President Ramaphosa in the wake of a scandal. The party said that its members in parliament, where the ANC controls 230 seatsor 57.5 percent, would vote against impeachment proceedings.
The announcement was made by ANC secretary-general Paul Mashatile in a news conference after a meeting of top party members in Johannesburg. There was pressure last week from some quarters for Ramaphosa to quit or be forced from office over the Phala Phala affair.
Back in June, a former spy boss filed a complaint with the police alleging that Ramaphosa had hidden the February 2020 burglary from the authorities. He accused the president of having organised for the robbers to be kidnapped and bribed into silence.
South Africa’s president is accused of covering up the theft of $4 million from his Phala Phala farm in northeastern South Africa back in 2020. The president has admitted that the money was stolen but claims that the sum was roughly $580,000.
A three-member independent parliamentary panel, led by an ex-chief justice submitted its recommendation report on the Farmgate scandal to National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula in Cape Town on Wednesday. A Parliament hearing on the report could lead to his removal if two-thirds of the lawmakers vote against him.
