The lone candidate running for president of the African National Congress is 70-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa, who is taking Zweli Mkhize’s former position as health minister. If the ANC wins the general election in 2024, the party will convene the following week to pick who will serve as president.
The Parliament will decide on Tuesday whether to begin the impeachment process against the president, but before that internal vote, large sums of cash were discovered hidden under a sofa during a burglary at one of Ramaphosa’s houses, and he is accused of trying to cover it up.
He has had official support from the ANC, which holds a sizable majority in parliament, making a forced resignation unlikely. However, some have charged the National Executive Committee (NEC), the party’s ruling body, with attempting to stifle dissenting opinions.
On Saturday, the president left his home province of Cape Town to go hunting. The president is in peril and only days away from a key election. The Democratic Alliance (DA), which garnered more than 50% of the vote in the most recent municipal elections, has a history of supporting the province.
In response to a question from journalists on a potential withdrawal related to the burglary case, in which he is not yet charged, Ramaphosa grinned and said, “There is no problem, there is no crisis, rest. before concluding the questions.
Later, walking between the corrugated iron shacks of a township, the president was followed by a restless crowd, dressed in green, black and yellow, the colors of the ANC. Supporters shouted, “My president! My president!”
But the word “corruption” was also on some lips: “I am happy to see him. But corruption in the ANC is killing our communities,” Simphiwe Ngxamngxa, in his 40s, told newsmen, listing the needs in deprived areas where access to water and electricity is not guaranteed.
