President of South Africa weighs options amid corruption scandal

Web Desk

02nd Dec, 2022. 08:23 pm
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South Africans are waiting to learn whether President Cyril Ramaphosa is going to resign.
His supporters portray this as an all-or-nothing struggle between a decent man and the forces of chaos.
Analysts say he was clumsy and careless and out of touch.

In the midst of a complex and highly politicized scandal involving livestock, a sofa, and the theft of tens of thousands (and potentially millions) of dollars, South Africans are waiting to learn whether President Cyril Ramaphosa is going to resign.

Much now depends on a meeting of the African National Congress (ANC), the nation’s ruling party, which is scheduled to take place in the coming days.

The ANC’s forces of chaos are trying to remove Mr. Ramaphosa in order to hold on to their loot and avoid going to jail, according to Mr. Ramaphosa’s most ardent supporters, who portray this as an all-or-nothing struggle between a decent man desperately trying to clean up a corrupt nation and the forces of chaos.

The play was compared to Shakespeare’s Henry V by one critic, who exhorted Mr. Ramaphosa to “stiffen the sinews” and struggle to clear his name.

There is no question that the case against Mr. Ramaphosa was politically motivated, at least initially.

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A well-known political competitor with ties to the corrupt former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, dramatically unveiled claims that Mr. Ramaphosa’s opulent Phala Phala game farm had lost millions of dollars buried in a sofa, and that there had been a police cover-up.

The president, a successful businessman and former symbol of the liberation movement who Nelson Mandela once favored to succeed him, loftily declared that he was innocent.

However, the issue has persisted, and as new information and denials have come to light over time, even some of his admirers have admitted that Mr. Ramaphosa and his aides handled the situation poorly.

“There are questions that he has not been able to answer… about these huge sums of cash. He’d told us he’d put all these [businesses] in blind trust. I think he was very clumsy and careless… and out of touch,” said Nombonisa Gasa, a political analyst.