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Lawmakers from the African National Congress party voted not to hold impeachment hearings for their embattled president, Cyril Ramaphosa, giving it a political twist amid the scandal known as “Farmgate. “
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By John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Lawmakers from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress subsidized President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, rejecting an impeachment inquiry into allegations that he broke the law in his reaction to the theft of a giant sum of U. S. currency from his farm.
The vote necessarily ends an effort to remove Ramaphosa from the workplace and improves his political outlook just three days before the start of a national convention for his party, the A. N. C. , with which he would face a grueling war to win a momentary term as party leader. .
The ANC holds 230 of the 400 seats in Parliament, and its conflicting parties have reached the 31 ANC members they needed to break ranks and vote for impeachment hearings. A total of 214 MPs voted against continuing with the investigation, while 148 voted in favour. .
Last week, the executive committee of the A. N. C. asked its members to reject impeachment, making it difficult for one of them to vote the opposite because the party appoints him to Parliament. Breaking with the commands can have serious repercussions within the organization, and added the loss of their seats.
However, a handful of African National Congress lawmakers challenged the order.
“As a disciplined member of the A. N. C. , I vote yes,” said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, M’s cabinet minister. Ramaphosa, who harshly criticized him and challenged him to the party presidency. Several allies of former President Jacob Zuma, who was sued over corruption allegations during his tenure that ultimately forced him out of office, also voted in favor of the impeachment process.
Gwede Mantashe, president of A. N. C. , told reporters after the vote that party members who voted in favor of impeachment would be informed to the organization’s officials and could face disciplinary action.
“When we speak as a party and make decisions, they have to be binding,” Mantashe said.
The report calling for impeachment hearings, released through a three-member panel appointed by parliament, said Ramaphosa possibly violated the charter and law by failing to inform police about the burglary on his farm and running a personal business in conflict with his duties as a public official.
Who is Cyril Ramaphosa? Before being sworn in as South Africa’s president in 2018, Mr. Ramaphosa, a former union leader turned wealthy businessman. During his campaign, he pledged to eliminate corruption. She later accused him of hiding a cache of stolen money in one of his properties.
What is “Farmgate”? According to the charges, in 2020, the thieves stole a fortune in US dollars hidden in furniture on M’s farm. The president never reported the theft to police or disclosed it publicly, but opened an informal investigation and paid off the suspects to that they keep silent Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing similar to the robbery.
Has Ramaphosa suffered any consequences? After a damning report through an independent panel concluded that Mr Ramaphosa had possibly harmed the law, and the chairman said he would not resign and would challenge the report. president of the ruling African National Congress.
Before the vote, opposition parties had lobbied for a secret ballot, hoping it would give Ramaphosa at the African National Congress more leeway to forget about party leaders. Parliament speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, a senior A. N. C. MP official, rejected this effort.
In the debate leading up to the vote, members of MrRamaphosa defended it and pointed to the panel’s report’s investigation. “The panel’s report set the bar too low to impeach a sitting president,” Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said.
Opposition lawmakers, outnumbered, tried to appeal to members of the ruling party. “The hatred that exists in your party has a negative effect on the 60 million people in this country,” said Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam, a member of the National Freedom Party. .
Ramaphosa filed a petition with the court to challenge the report calling for an impeachment inquiry, arguing that it is legally flawed and accusing the panel of treating it unfairly by going beyond its original scope.
Parliament created the formula of convening a panel several years ago to give advice on impeachment after the nation’s supreme court ruled that the ANC had not found Zuma guilty of embezzlement of public funds. It was intended to allow for an apolitical assessment of a president’s conduct. .
But the panel was unable to consult witnesses or subpoenas. Instead, it basically reviewed data received from members of parliament, many of which was based on media reports and other second-hand accounts of what had happened on the president’s farm.
The result, opposition leaders said, that the formula remained necessarily the same: the A. N. C. It could choose to protect its leaders from responsibility.
“The A. N. C. no was informed of nothing,” said Julius Malema, a former A. N. C. MP alumnus who is now the leader of the opposition’s economic freedom fighters. “It’s rotten to the core. He does not have the ability to self-correct.
Ramaphosa has come under scrutiny since June, when a political opponent filed a thief complaint against him for failing to report the break-in at his hunting farm, Phala Phala Wildlife.
The complaint, filed through Arthur Fraser, South Africa’s former state security chief, said between $4 million and $8 million had been stolen hidden on a couch in February 2020, and accused Ramaphosa of recruiting his security chief. A chance investigation that led to the kidnapping and torture of the suspects in the case.
The president has denied wrongdoing. He said the amount stolen was particularly smaller, $580,000, and that the money came from selling 20 buffaloes to a Sudanese businessman on Christmas Day 2019.
The parliamentary panel, which included two retired judges and a lawyer, was skeptical of S. Ramaphosa and questioned whether the stolen money came from the sale of games.
Ramaphosa thought about resigning after the panel released its report last month, aides said, but his allies encouraged him and suggested he retaliate.
Since then, he has continued with his presidential duties and his quest for re-election as President of the A. N. C. , which would almost secure him a momentary term as President of the country.
The president has staked much of his term on cleaning up corruption within the ANC and the government that broke the country’s economy and reputation and contributed to a significant loss of electoral aid for a party that established itself as an ethical force in the apartheid era.
His main rival for the party presidency at the conference, which begins Friday, is Zweli Mkhize. He served as fitness minister under Ramaphosa until he became entangled in his own corruption scandal over a communications contract his ministry awarded to a company. Ownership through partners cercanos. Sr. Mkhize did not attend the vote in Parliament.
He told reporters that the executive committee, to which he belongs, had intimidated members into deciding not to proceed with impeachment. He said members would have the opportunity to make their own decisions.
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