Cyril Ramaphosa, 70, is the only candidate ahead of his former health minister, Zweli Mkhize, for president of the African National Congress (ANC). The party meets next week to decide who will lead the country if the increasingly disputed ANC wins the 2024 general election.
But before that internal vote, Parliament will decide on Tuesday whether to impeach the president: Ramaphosa is accused of trying to hide a robbery at one of his properties, during which large sums of cash were found hidden in a sofa. .
The ANC, which has a large majority in parliament, has given him official support, making a forced departure unlikely. But some have accused the party’s top brass of trying to silence dissenting voices within the all-powerful National Executive Committee (NEC) that heads it.
The president, who is in trouble just days before a crucial election, went hunting on Saturday outside his home province of Cape Town. The province is traditionally favored by the first opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which won more than 50 percent of the vote in the last local elections.
When asked by reporters about a possible withdrawal after the robbery case in which he is not charged at this stage, Mr. Ramaphosa replied with a smile: “No problem, no crisis, relax. Before you end the questions”.
Later, walking among the corrugated iron shacks of a corregimiento, the president was followed by a restless crowd, dressed in green, black and yellow, the colors of the ANC. Supporters chanted: “My president! My president!”
But the word “corruption” was also on some lips: “I’m happy to see it. But corruption in the ANC is killing our communities,” Simphiwe Ngxamngxa, in her 40s, told AFP, listing needs in deprived areas where access to water and electricity are not guaranteed.
