Cyril Ramaphosa survives parliamentary impeachment process

President Cyril Ramaphosa may have staved off a parliamentary impeachment process but not without a fallout from within his own party.

As most opposition parties banded together to vote in favour of a Section 89 panel report that found the president may have breached the Constitution, four African National Congress members sided with them.

But it was not enough to sway the vote, in a day of high drama in the Cape Town City Hall.

It’s the first time in 2022 that all Members of Parliament were invited to attend a sitting of the National Assembly.

And it was fitting for arguably the biggest decision they’ve had to make in the country’s democracy and in a tumultuous year for the legislature.

After much unhappiness over an open ballot, when the voting did eventually get underway, it was Co-operative Governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who stunned her party into silence.

“As a disciplined member of the ANC, I vote, yes,” she said.

There was resounding applause from the opposition benches, but their collective votes were not enough to carry the motion to have the president face an inquiry over corruption allegations involving his farm, Phala Phala.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula officially adjourned Tuesday’s proceedings.

“Those who have voted yes, 148 and those who have voted no, 214, and abstentions, 2. Therefore, the Section 89 inquiry will therefore not be proceeded with.”

With the impeachment process now dead in the water, opposition parties were already plotting their next moves to force the president to answer their questions.