At the end of a heated debate, the Parliament has largely opposed the opening of a dismissal procedure of Cyril Ramaphosa.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, mired in a scandal for months, escaped Tuesday, November 13 at the opening of an dismissal procedure, the Parliament having largely opposed the end of a heated debate.
The assembly voted against 214 votes, for 148 votes and 2 abstentions. Each of the deputies present has clearly set out their choice, speaking in the eleven official languages of the country.
During the debate, supported, the president called for calm, sometimes using Zulu “Thula! Thula!” (“Shut up!”). If more than 50 % of them had considered the burglary affair that bothers the president sufficiently judged, a procedure would have been launched to examine the case in detail.
m. Ramaphosa, 70, who made a fortune in business before accessing the supreme function, is accused of having hidden from the police and the taxman a burglary in his property of Phala Phala, where he rare cattle.
“Piss on the Constitution”
In February 2020, intruders left with $ 580,000 unearthed under the cushions of a sofa. The fruit of the sale of twenty buffaloes, according to the president. Dirty money, according to the complaint filed in June by a political opponent. Mr. Ramaphosa, who spent the day between Pretoria and Johannesburg, is not charged, the police investigation continue.
A parliamentary report, written by three lawyers, had concluded at the end of November that Mr. Ramaphosa “was able to commit” acts contrary to the law. It is on this basis that Parliament had to decide.
“We do not vot to declare the innocent or guilty president,” had attempted during the debate the leader of the main opposition party (DA), John Steenhuisen, but for the Parliament to go to the bottom of the case . “It is a decisive moment: the Parliament will affirm today that no one is above the law or that some are,” said Vuyolwethu Zungula, of the small Atm opposition party originally a censorship motion.
Julius Malema, leader of the eff (radical left) said he was “disappointed” by the president, even accusing him, in his raw style, of “pissing on the constitution”. “The report places the bar too low to dismiss an in -office president,” challenged the Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola. “There are not enough elements” to justify it, hammered the fervent support of the Head of State, while the ANC had given clear instructions to its elected officials to reject such a procedure.
deep divisions within the ancient
This decisive vote for the immediate future of the president, who remains very popular despite suspicion of tax evasion or money laundering, comes three days before a crucial meeting of the African National Congress (ANC). The party, in power since the end of apartheid, must elect its next leader and future head of state at the end of the week, in the event of victory in the general elections of 2024. Cyril Ramaphosa is a candidate for the party’s presidency , who has chosen the heads of state for thirty years, facing his former Minister of Health.
The Caciques de l’ANI, in the absence of a credible successor, had provided him with official support to save him, calling, despite tightness, the 230 party deputies to vote as one man to reject the procedure dismissal. Only a handful of them missed the call.
But the ANC could make, in the long term, the costs of the scandal. In the grip of profound divisions and tainted by repeated corruption cases – especially under the era of President Jacob Zuma (2009-2018). The ANC has been weakening in the polls for ten years.
In 2021, for the first time in its history, it brought together less than 50 % of the vote in local elections. In 2024, the Ancient could lose power, “said analyst Daniel Silke. Taking South Africa, led by the ANC since the advent of democracy, in unknown land.