South Africa’s largest opposition parties announced on Sunday that they will table a no-confidence motion against President Cyril Ramaphosa next Tuesday, following the confirmation by an independent panel of the criminal charges against him.
“Ramaphosa’s position as head of state has become untenable,” said the Forum of Opposition Political Parties, an 11-member organization that includes the country’s three largest opposition parties, namely the Democratic Alliance (DA), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
In its report, the three-member Independent Commission, headed by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, concluded that the head of state may have violated the Constitution and abused his oath of office by failing to report to the competent authorities the theft of a large sum of money in foreign currency perpetrated in 2020 on his farm in “Phala Phala”, in the north-east of the country.
In a statement, the forum stressed that the panel’s findings provided sufficient evidence for Parliament to proceed with Ramaphosa’s impeachment, noting that “voting against the independent committee’s recommendations will constitute a breach of Parliament’s constitutional duty to hold responsible executive.
“Previous decisions of the Constitutional Court have condemned the lack of control and vigilance of the Parliament over the executive,” he continued.
Separately, the parties stressed that “in the interests of justice, transparency and fairness, Ramaphosa must step down from power to allow investigations to proceed without fear of reprisal or repercussions. »
Similarly, the partisan organization expressed its “deep concern over the continuing delays in the investigations of the Department of the Ombudsman of the Republic, the South African Reserve Bank, the South African Police Service and the all other institutions that are supposed to hold Ramaphosa accountable for the many alleged crimes committed at Phala Phala”.
Calls for the resignation of the South African President have intensified since the publication of the damning report on this scandal. According to the panel, these facts constitute “a serious violation” of the laws and the Constitution of the country.