South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced he will not resign from his position despite the establishment of an impeachment committee to reinvestigate allegations that he committed serious misconduct by hiding the theft of more than half a million dollars in cash, which had been stashed in a sofa at his game ranch.
In a televised address to the nation, Ramaphosa said he would legally challenge a parliamentary report which found credible evidence of wrongdoing on his part, a process that is likely to significantly delay possible impeachment proceedings against him.
He has faced calls from various quarters, especially opposition parties, to step down from his position while these processes unfold.
His announcement came a few hours after the South African Parliament said it would establish the impeachment committee in compliance with a decision of the country’s highest court last week that the report should referred to an impeachment committee.
“I therefore respectfully want to make it clear that I will not resign,” Ramaphosa said on Monday.
Ramaphosa is accused of hiding from police and tax authorities a 2020 break-in and theft of large sums of foreign currency allegedly stashed in furniture at his luxury Phala Phala farmhouse in the northern Limpopo province
His decision follows a ruling by the top Constitutional Court on Friday saying a 2022 Parliament vote that blocked impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa over the scandal was unconstitutional.
At the time of the vote, Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party had a majority in Parliament. The vote was held despite an independent report finding evidence of wrongdoing by the president in allegedly not properly reporting the theft to police and trying to keep an investigation to recover the money secret.
The Constitutional Court last week said that, according to procedure, the 2022 independent report should have been referred to an impeachment committee for further investigation.
Impeaching the leader of Africa’s top economy would require the support of at least two-thirds of lawmakers in the 400-member Parliament, according to the Constitution.
The multi-party impeachment committee still needs to conduct an investigation before any move to hold an impeachment vote. No time frame was given for that in Monday’s Parliament statement.
The allegations against Ramaphosa were first made by a former head of South Africa’s state security agency, who walked into a police station in 2022 and accused the president of money laundering and other offenses over the money. It emerged the theft happened in 2020 and had been kept secret.
Ramaphosa denied wrongdoing and said the money — in U.S. dollars — came from the legitimate sale of buffaloes on his ranch. However, questions arose over the source of the money and why it was hidden in a sofa.
The 2022 independent report said there was “legitimate doubt” over the source of the money, and some evidence that the amount was more than the $580,000 Ramaphosa claimed.
It also said Ramaphosa had used the head of his presidential protection unit and others to “surreptitiously” try and track down the suspects.
