Parliament Against South African President Iran’s Impeachment Proceedings: Commission Loses Patience With Cassis – Mullahs Delay Human Rights Dialogue

The South African parliament on Tuesday voted against the impeachment of President Cyril Ramaphosa. A total of 214 MPs voted against, 148 in favor and two abstained. After protracted debates, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party backed Ramaphosa, who is accused of corruption. The ANC has ruled South Africa for over a quarter of a century. He has an absolute majority in parliament.

A week earlier, 70-year-old Ramaphosa had applied to the country’s constitutional court to review serious corruption charges against him. The 70-year-old is heavily burdened by the report of a parliamentary committee of inquiry. Accordingly, the head of state, who has been in office since 2018, is said to have violated both an anti-corruption law and the constitution. However, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya described the report as “clearly flawed”. Independent legal experts also criticized that the report was largely based on unverified information and rumors.

The background to the allegations is a robbery that allegedly stole half a million dollars from Ramaphosa’s private cattle ranch in 2020. The president – also a successful businessman and multimillionaire – had reported the robbery, but not the disappearance of the money. His predecessor Jacob Zuma, who ruled from 2009 to 2018, was forced to resign over a corruption scandal. The ANC, which emerged from the former freedom movement, has ruled South Africa since the end of the racist apartheid regime in 1994. (saw/sda/dpa)