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Considers the allegations "completely unfounded": ANC politician Cyril Ramaphosa
Photo: ESA ALEXANDER / REUTERS
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is under massive pressure after the release of an investigative report into alleged misconduct.
According to a party spokesman, the executive board of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) called an emergency meeting for Friday before parliament debates the report next week.
Ramaphosa could face impeachment.
South Africa's former spy chief Arthur Fraser reported Ramaphosa in June for money laundering and bribery.
The background is a 2020 robbery that allegedly stole about $4 million from the president's private cattle ranch in northeastern Limpopo province.
Ramaphosa reported the robbery but not the disappearance of the money, Fraser said.
The independent body was set up in mid-October.
It has now announced that there have been unresolved cash payments in the President's environment.
Ramaphosa violated parts of the constitution and the so-called Precca Act to combat corruption, the report said.
Ramaphosa, however, dismissed the allegations of his own misconduct before the investigative committee as "completely unfounded".
After Ramaphosa replaced Jacob Zuma as head of state in 2018, he vowed to fight corruption within state institutions.
Criticism from within your own party and from the opposition is getting louder
A simple majority is sufficient to initiate impeachment proceedings, while a two-thirds majority would be required for actual impeachment.
Ramaphosa's ANC holds more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament.
The scandal could derail Ramaphosa's plan to be confirmed as ANC chairman in mid-December.
Re-election as party leader would also pave the way for a second term as president.
However, critical voices are growing louder both from his own party and from the opposition.
"The President must now step aside and answer questions about the case," Cabinet Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who lost to Ramaphosa in the 2017 party leadership election, said on Twitter.
The left-leaning opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said the best solution for Ramaphosa was “his immediate resignation”.
The largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, called for early elections because the country was about to undergo a "defining change."
atb/dpa/AFP