Ramaphosa facing revolt from within the ANC: report
President Cyril Ramaphosa has dared his opponents in the ANC leadership to try and oust him at the party’s upcoming national general council (NGC) after another week of setbacks rocked his office.
The Sunday Times reports that the president is facing a ‘simmering revolt’ from within the party, being led by those who originally opposed his presidency — and lost — at the Nasrec conference in 2017.
According to the paper, Ramaphosa’s opponents have been emboldened by the public protector’s recent report, which found he breached the executive ethics when he failed to declare donations to his presidential campaign.
Questions were also raised this week about ‘spies’ in the party’s top leadership after national executive committee member Derek Hanekom admitted to meeting with the EFF to remove former president Jacob Zuma.
Presenting his political overview at the party’s national executive committee on Friday (26 July), Ramaphosa is said to have told the gathering he has ‘a date’ with those who plan to use the NGC to oust him.
The upcoming NGC is scheduled to take place in June 2020.
Fight vs the public protector
In a report released on 19 July, public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane ruled that president Cyril Ramaphosa violated the constitution and executive ethics code when he misled lawmakers about a campaign donation from a company implicated in paying bribes to senior government officials.
However, Ramaphosa has told the public protector that she does not have the jurisdiction to investigate these charges and that her probe is ‘unlawful’.
While Ramaphosa plans to fight the findings of the report, Mkhwebane is also facing a challenge against her office after the Constitutional Court ruled against her in a costs order this week.
In a scathing judgement, the court found that Mkhwebane ‘conducted herself in bad faith’ and found that the ‘defiance of her constitutional obligations was egregious’ .
Read: Fight between Ramaphosa and the public protector turns ugly
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