Cyril Ramaphosa now has a clear road to gaining another term as president of South Africa in 2024 after being re-elected as the party’s leader on Monday. However, observers assert that a corruption scandal and intra-party conflicts have undermined Ramaphosa politically.
Ramaphosa won the African National Congress party’s leadership election by nearly 600 votes over former health minister Zweli Mkhize.
Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and political expert Susan Boysen claims Ramaphosa’s group also holds four of the party’s top seven posts.
“Including significant roles like the ANC’s national chair and treasurer general. However, Cyril Ramaphosa and supporters of Mkhize would share the secretary-office, general’s she added.
Despite the triumph on Monday, she claims Ramaphosa is too corrupt to oversee an effective anti-corruption campaign.
Recent calls for an impeachment investigation into the February 2020 theft of at least $580,000 from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm came from an independent commission.
A majority of ANC lawmakers voted against the report’s adoption last week in parliament.
However, there are still concerns about the source of the money, whether it was reported for foreign exchange restrictions, and why a police docket wasn’t opened. Several state-sponsored investigations into the issue are ongoing.
I firmly believe that we haven’t reached the end of the journey with Phala Phala yet “Boysen stated. “There isn’t a definitive conclusion yet, and opposing parties, in my opinion, recognize the flaw. They will undoubtedly try every avenue to attack President Ramaphosa. Additionally, he will be a somewhat to severely weak president in that regard.
Boysen claims that Paul Mashatile, the ANC’s new vice president, won the party election on Monday. Mashatile previously served as the premier of Gauteng province, where he has a solid reputation for providing quality public services.
She claims that in order to win the seat, he outwitted a number of his rivals as well as the Ramaphosa camp. Mashatile is expected to succeed Ramaphosa as president if something were to happen to him.
Overall, Boysen is not pleased with the party’s selection of the top seven, calling many of the candidates “same old, same old.” She mentions that investigators demanded that Nomvula Mokonyane, the ANC’s new deputy secretary-general, be charged for receiving bribes from a corporation that transacted with the government.
In the end, Ramaphosa’s retention as ANC leader is a relief for the nation and the party, according to Keith Gottschalk, a retired senior lecturer of political science at the University of the Western Cape.
“It is very astonishing how quickly Ramaphosa, who was the victim of a crime, has been turned into some type of criminal, but that is the how political wars are conducted, “added he. “It strongly reminds me of Ngozi Okonjo-quote: Iweala’s “Where you fight corruption, corruption fights back,” unquote, the former Nigerian finance minister and current head of the World Trade Organization. And that’s been the situation here.
The 55th elective conference of the ANC, which began on Friday, concludes tomorrow.
