Will Cyril Ramaphosa survive the impeachment storm? ANC's unwavering support revealed

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who enjoys unanimous support from the party's leadership, will complete his terms of office despite calls for him to step down, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told a media briefing.

Addressing the media at the party’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg, Mbalula said the ANC unequivocally supports Ramaphosa to continue leading until the end of his terms in both the ANC and the Government of National Unity.

The ANC met in Cape Town on Wednesday to discuss the Constitutional Court judgment on how the Parliament had, in 2022, handled the issue of US$580,000, which Ramaphosa admitted was stashed in a couch at his Phala Phala game farm house and later stolen during a break-in.

The gathering allowed the seven national officials to brief the National Executive Committee (NEC) about the judgment and Ramaphosa’s next move. 

He said that after the party’s national officials carefully considered legal opinion from senior counsel, they unanimously supported the president's decision to lodge the review application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. 

“The exercise of constitutional rights by a citizen of the Republic, including a citizen who holds the Office of President, is not an evasion of accountability.

“To suggest that the president should not exercise the constitutional remedies that the court itself preserved is to suggest that the Office of the President strips a person of rights,” said Mbalula.

Parliament established the Section 89 Independent Panel, led by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, to investigate matters surrounding the Phala Phala scandal, and on November 22, it furnished Parliament with the report, which found prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have violated his oath of office and anti-corruption laws.

However, Parliament, through ANC MPs, rejected the report, but the EFF and ActionSA successfully took Parliament to the Concourt, seeking to review the vote against the report.  

Mbalula said Ramaphosa was mandated by the ANC branches at the party's 55th National Conference at Nasrec in December 2022 to lead the party for five years.

He said that as the State president, Ramaphosa was elected by the National Assembly after the ANC received the majority of votes in the May 2024 general elections.

He said Ramaphosa’s mandate from ANC branches and members of the society was intact.

“We will not, as a movement, allow speculation in the media, however energetic, to substitute for the constitutional moments of our movement; and those constitutional moments are the conferences of the African National Congress.

“The president will continue to do the work of the State on behalf of the people who entrusted him with that mandate,” said Mbalula.

The Concourt judgment, which Chief Justice Mandisa Maya delivered on May 8, left the nation speculating that Ramaphosa would tender his resignation, while opposition political parties were calling for his head to roll. 

The judgment has led to Parliament preparing for the impeachment process.

On May 11,  Ramaphosa told the nation that he would not resign and that instead, he would take the report under review. 

Mbalula said the judgment did not interrupt the government and ANC branches' work, as Ramaphosa's review of the report and impeachment process will run its course. 

“Both processes will be conducted with the dignity, the seriousness, and the constitutional fidelity that the people of South Africa expect of their institutions. And while those processes run their course, the work of governing and the work of building a better life for our people will not pause for a single day.” 

He said Ramaphosa's review of the report will not delay the impeachment, as the two processes will be intertwined.

“The establishment of the committee is not impeachment, as there are a whole lot of processes that must be followed. That committee might advise, or it might come to a different conclusion.

“But the court did not order an impeachment; if it comes to that, we will deal with it as it comes,” he said. 

He said that while Parliament will do its work in preparation for impeachment in the coming weeks, Ramaphosa, as the State President, will continue his work.

He admitted that the ANC-dominated Parliament mishandled the issue of its former president, Jacob Zuma, when it voted in his defence against the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on the Nkandla scandal.

“There was a judgment on our former president, which basically said that he had broken the oath of office. We were basically called delinquents because we were delinquent, correctly so, because we did not follow the law.

“In this particular instance, the Constitutional Court did not judge the president (Ramaphosa) on how he deals with his oath of office,” he said.

He said the Concourt did not consider the merits of the Section 89 report, but it dealt with the parliamentary process.

“The people who want to influence the events of the resignation of the president have basically delved into the merits of the case.

“President Ramaphosa has not been judged by the Constitutional Court based on the Section 89 report and is not even referred to in that report,” he said.

University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Zakhele Ndlove advised that Ramaphosa should resign because of the cloud hanging over his head, which he said will go away. 

“His predecessors were forced to resign. Why wait for the inevitable?” said Ndlovu.

He said that since the ANC is preparing for the local government elections, Ramaphosa has become a liability. 

“The chances of him surviving the impeachment process are slim. It all depends on whether voting is secret or open,” Ndlovu said.

Weekend Argus