The story so far: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was reelected leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), on December 19, 2022. Mr. Ramaphosa beat his rival, former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, by 2,476 votes to 1,897 votes from a total of 4,386 votes cast by party delegates from across the country.
This comes as a welcome victory for Mr. Ramaphosa, who has been mired in controversy and facing calls to step down as president of South Africa and to be replaced as the leader of the ANC. Mr. Ramaphosa’s victory paves the way for him to run for a second term as president in the 2024 national elections. The ANC’s presidential candidate has been regarded as a sure shot for the top job since 1994.
Although the race was closer than expected, Ramaphosa managed to increase his margin of victory from a narrow 179 votes in the 2017 elections to 579 votes.
Mr. Ramaphosa, who rose to power as an anti-corruption crusader, recently found himself in hot water over allegations of misconduct and a violation of the Constitution he helped to draft in the 1990s. On December 5, the ANC held a meeting in Johannesburg to discuss Mr. Ramaphosa’s future. Later that month, Mr. Ramaphosa survived a vote to start impeachment proceedings against him.
The meeting and vote followed a November 30 report by a parliamentary committee, outlining irregularities pertaining to the theft of money on his Phala Phala farm, in a scandal dubbed ‘Farmgate’. In June 2022, allegations surfaced that Mr. Ramaphosa had millions of U.S dollars hidden in a couch at his farm, and that he launched an off-the-books investigation after this money was stolen. The parliamentary panel doubted Mr. Ramaphosa’s account of events, saying that “the information presented by the president on the storage of the money is vague and leaves unsettling gaps.”
What was the “Farmgate” controversy?
Arthur Fraser, former state security head and ally of ex-president Jacob Zuma, filed a criminal complaint in June 2022, alleging that Mr. Ramaphosa had between $4 million to $8 million stolen from his northeastern Phala Phala game farm in February 2020, but never reported this theft to officials. Instead, he used his personal protection unit to conduct an illegal, off-the-books investigation, Mr. Fraser said. He accused the president of acquiring the money through corruption and money laundering and said that Mr Ramaphosa’s investigators kidnapped suspects and paid them off.
The burglary at Mr. Ramaphosa’s farm became public in June 2020 after Imanuwela David, a Namibian-born South African passport-holder, was arrested while illegally entering Namibia via canoe. At the time, police said he was linked to a burglary in South Africa—an investigative report created by Nelius Becker, head of criminal investigations for the police, pointed to his involvement in a theft at a farm owned by Mr. Ramaphosa—but not the Phala Phala farm.
The report also indicated that there was a high-level meeting between authorities of the two countries and that South Africa attempted to pressure its neighbour. However, the head of Namibian police Lt. Gen. Sebastian Ndeitunga said in a press release that the June 19 meeting was to “share operational information” about Mr. David and other suspects who fled to Namibia.
In a statement Mr. Ramaphosa refuted the allegations, saying that he had done nothing to violate his constitutional oath and that this was “an unprecedented and extraordinary moment for South Africa’s constitutional democracy.”
“I did not ‘hunt’ for the perpetrators of the theft, as alleged, nor did I give any instructions for this to take place,” he submitted to the panel, per an AFP report. According to his version of events, Sudanese citizen Mustaf Mohamed Ibrahim Hazim bought 20 buffaloes from his farm in December 2019, leaving money with the lodge manager. The manager placed the money in a safe but later moved it under the cushions of a sofa in the President’s private farm residence for safe-keeping.
On February 9, 2020, the cash was stolen from the sofa. While local media and Mr. Fraser’s complaint alleged a theft of more than $4 million, Mr. Ramaphosa says that only $580,000 was stolen.
The report and the impeachment proceedings
In August 2022, a parliamentary panel consisting of two retired judges and a lawyer was appointed by ANC member and Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula. The panel was tasked with determining if there was enough evidence to support a case for impeachment.
The panel found that Mr. Ramaphosa’s statement contradicted that of his security and that he may have failed to report foreign currency to the central bank and evaded taxes on it. “There are weighty considerations which leave us in substantial doubt as to whether the stolen foreign currency is the proceeds of sale,” it said. It also alleged that the president may have violated the Constitution, by conducting private business conflicting with his duties, and violated anti-corruption laws by not reporting the theft to appropriate authorities may also mean that he broke anti-corruption laws.
The report alleged that Mr. Ramaphosa sought help in his investigation from the Namibian president Hage Geingob. Mr. Geingob, however, enied doing Mr. Ramaphosa any favours.
The National Assembly met to discuss the report, and the Parliament voted on whether to start impeachment proceedings against Mr. Ramaphosa on December 13. The motion failed to get the two-thirds majority required to pass, with legislators voting 214 to 148 in Mr. Ramophosa’s favour. While the ANC mostly stood by the President, four members voted for the impeachment, while a few others remained absent.
Also read: South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa: A president versus his people
Although he survived the impeachment vote, the president faced harsh criticism and calls for his resignation from opponents as well as critics in his own party.
Before the vote, Major-General Bantu Holomisa, leader of the United Democratic Movement, said that ANC must recall the President if he doesn’t voluntarily resign. “South Africa cannot afford another scenario where the nation and the world is focused on the mistakes of our president,” the leader said, per a New York Times report.
Jacob Zuma suit
To add to Mr. Ramaphosa’s challenges, former President Jacob Zuma sued him in a private prosecution, right before the ANC’s national elective conference. He alleged that Ramaphosa was an accessory in the leaking of a confidential medical document about Mr. Zuma to the press.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has been charged in a private prosecution with the criminal offence of being accessory after the fact in the crimes committed by, among others, Advocate Downer namely, breaching the provisions of the [National Prosecuting Authority] NPA Act,”a statement released by the Jacob Zuma Foundation said.
Mr. Ramaphosa has rejected the suit and issued a statement calling it an “abuse of legal processes”. In late December, he approached the high court in Johannesburg notifying it of his intention to make an application on January 10, 2023. Mr. Ramophosa is seeking that the summons against him be declared unlawful, and that the private prosecution is declared “unlawful, unconstitutional, invalid”.
The case follows other attempts by Mr. Zuma to remove prosecutor Billy Downer, who is pursuing him on corruption charges linked to a 1990s arms deal.
Who is Cyril Ramaphosa?
Mr. Ramaphosa was born in Soweto, Johannesburg in 1952. A former labour leader, he launched the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982 and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). He also participated in anti-apartheid activities. He was elected to the Parliament and as Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly in 1994. In 1997, he entered the world of business, eventually becoming one of the country’s richest businessmen.
He rose to prominence in 2017 as a strident voice against corruption and was elected ANC leader. On February 15, 2018, he was sworn in as South Africa’s fifth president post Jacob Zuma’s resignation.
