The long-awaited vote on whether to institute impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is at the centre of a corruption scandal, was postponed by a week by the South African parliament on Monday night, according to the speaker of the house.
Originally set for Tuesday, the vote has been moved to December 13 because each elected person needs time to travel to Cape Town, where Parliament is located, for a face-to-face vote, according to Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula.
In the midst of a scandal, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party announced earlier on Monday that its members in parliament, where they hold a majority, would vote against initiating impeachment proceedings.
This was stated at a press briefing by ANC Secretary-General Paul Mashatile following a meeting of the party’s top officials in Johannesburg. Last week, Ramaphosa came under pressure from some quarters to resign or be removed from office due to the so-called Phala Phala scandal.
The case began in June when a former intelligence boss reported Ramaphosa for allegedly concealing the burglary in February 2020 from law enforcement. He charged that the president had orchestrated the kidnapping and coercion of the thieves into silence.
