South Africa’s Ramaphosa defies resignation calls as Parliament prepares probe

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa rejected calls to resign and vowed to challenge a report criticizing his handling of a robbery at his farm in 2020, after the nation’s top court resurrected the scandal.

“I will not resign,” he said in a televised address on Monday. “To do so would be to give credence to a panel report that unfortunately has grave flaws.”

The Constitutional Court on May 8 ruled that lawmakers erred four years ago when they failed to establish an impeachment committee to look into how Ramaphosa dealt with the theft of foreign exchange hidden in a sofa on his game farm.

Ramaphosa said he would ask the courts to overturn the findings of an advisory panel that examined the incident and found that his conduct may have breached the constitution.

The rand has been little changed against the dollar since the Constitutional Court ruling, easing about 0.1% as it tracks events in the Middle East, with volatility measuresshowing no sign that traders are turning more bearish on the currency.

Earlier on Monday, the speaker of parliament announced she would submit the report, which will form the basis of an impeachment committee’s investigation, to the National Assembly.
Impeachment stands little chance of success as it would require a two-thirds majority of the chamber to pass. Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party holds 40% of its seats.

But it’s increasingly viewed as intensifying political pressure on the president, as the ANC braces for challenging local elections later this year. That’s fueled speculation he might choose to step down — an idea Ramaphosa firmly dismissed in his national address.

“To resign now would be to give in to those who seek to reverse the renewal of our society, the rebuilding of our institutions and the prosecution of corruption,” he said.

Ramaphosa has championed economic reforms that have warmed investors to South Africa in recent months, after they penalized the nation’s assets for years over government mismanagement and corruption.

He also forged a multiparty coalition government following the 2024 elections in which the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since taking power three decades earlier, when it ended White-minority rule.

The ANC’s poor performance reflected voter anger over corruption, crime and the deterioration of critical infrastructure, and opinion polls show its support will shrink further in the Nov. 4 municipal vote.

The top decision-making body of the ANC will convene on Tuesday to discuss the court ruling, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the meeting hasn’t been announced yet.

Parliament Speaker Thoko Didiza is expected later this week to convene a Chief Whips’ Forum that will nominate members from various parties to make up the impeachment committee.

“President Ramaphosa should bring any review application with due haste and on an expedited basis, so that the legal position is clarified quickly,” said Geordin Hill-Lewis, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, the nation’s second-biggest party.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, one of the two parties that brought the case against Ramaphosa in the Constitutional Court, said it would join the review application and demand that the matter be treated with urgency by the courts.