South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa faces threat of impeachment over ‘Farmgate’
The “Farmgate” scandal may lead to Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, being threatened with impeachment.
The president has been accused of covering up a $4m (£3.3m) theft from his farm in 2020, including kidnapping and bribing the burglars into silence.
According to a three-volume assessment from an independent panel, Mr. Ramaphosa may have violated an anti-corruption law and abused his position.
He claims the money came from selling buffalo and has denied any wrongdoing.
Parliament has received the panel’s findings, which it will review and determine whether or not to use next week to begin the impeachment process.
A convention that will decide whether Mr. Ramaphosa can run for a second term with his party, the African National Congress (ANC), in 2024 is less than a month away. Considering that Mr. Ramaphosa ran for office on an anti-corruption platform, the event might be especially harmful.
On Thursday, the ANC will meet with its executive, and it is anticipated that the topic would be handled then.
The Farmgate scandal began in June when Arthur Fraser, a former South African spy director, filed a police report alleging that the president had concealed the theft of $4 million in cash from his Phala Phala property in the country’s northeast in 2020.
The money may have been the result of money laundering and corruption, according to Mr. Fraser, a close associate of former President Jacob Zuma. He also charged the president with kidnapping and bribing the burglars.
Holding so much money in dollars could be against the rules governing foreign exchange.
While confirming the crime, Mr. Ramaphosa claimed that the amount actually taken was less than had been claimed and refuted any attempts to cover it up.
According to him, under the sofa cushions in the farmhouse were stolen about $580,000 that had been paid in cash for buffalo.
“I did not ‘hunt’ for the perpetrators of the theft, as alleged, nor did I give any instructions for this to take place,” he wrote in a submission to the panel’s report, according to AFP news agency.
The panel concluded that there were many unanswered questions, calling it a “very serious matter”.
Little information was kept about the man who supposedly paid the money for buffalo, it said, adding that he had still not collected the animals two and a half years later.
The panel also said it was strange that the money had been kept hidden in a sofa, rather than in a safe until it could be lodged in a bank account.
“We think that the president has a case to answer on the origin of the foreign currency that was stolen, as well as the underlying transaction for it,” the report said. It added: “The president abused his position as head of state to have the matter investigated and seeking the assistance of the Namibian president to apprehend a suspect.”
Namibian President Hage Geingob has previously denied any involvement in the incident.
Source: BBC Africa