South Africa Parliament Rejects Impeachment Move Against President Ramaphosa

The South Africa National Assembly on Tuesday blocked a report that allegedly indicted President Cyril Ramaphosa and called for an impeachment proceedings against him.

Ramaphosa was said to have kept the sum of $580,000 cash in his Phala Phala game ranch.

Section 89 Independent Panel report before the parliamentarians claimed the president could have committed financial crime while in office but he had denied any wrongdoing.

The National Assembly Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, had declined allowing a secret ballot even though some of the lawmakers protested against it.

They eventually voted manually.

Members of the National Assembly voted by 214 to 148 against the report and could not reach the 50% threshold constitutionally required to begin the impeachment proceedings.

Ramaphosa’s party, the African National Congress, has 230 out of the 400 members of the parliament and 199 of them voted against him.

Based on the outcome, the lawmakers backed the adminstration of Ramaphosa.