South Africa has planned for the president to investigate the issue of “Farmgate”. Corruption Issues

The National Assembly has said that its speaker will start the process of setting up a committee to clear cases.

South Africa’s parliament will set up an impeachment committee to investigate President Cyril Ramaphosa’s impeachment “Farmgate” mess.

Members of parliament on Monday said their speaker would set up a committee to investigate. The country’s high court has ordered that they do so last week where he revived the charges against Ramaphosa.

On Friday, the Constitutional Court said that the decision of the parliament to stop the investigation four years ago on the matter of this scandal, is not compatible with the constitution of this country.

The impeachment committee will review evidence against Ramaphosa in the scandal, which involves large sums of foreign currency hidden in a sofa at the president’s farm, before deciding whether to approve the action.

They are expected to discuss the matter for several months.

The story relates to the 2020 theft of $4m in foreign currency that was placed in a sofa at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm.

Amid questions about how the president, who took office on an anti-corruption pledge, got the money, whether he declared it, and why it was hidden in offices and not in a bank, Ramaphosa has denied wrongdoing.

He said last week that he respected the court’s decision to revive the prosecution.

However, speaking to the nation on Monday evening, he said he will not resign, and intends to formally challenge the independent panel’s report that found the first evidence that he did not do well.

A spokesman for Ramaphosa’s party called a meeting of the National Executive Committee on Tuesday to discuss what to do about the crisis.

The case against Ramaphosa was filed by two opposition parties – the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the African Transformation Movement (ATM). The EFF has asked the president who has been in power since 2018 to step down.

However, even if the results of the impeachment committee were negative, the president could survive a vote in the parliament, where a two-thirds majority is required to remove him from office.

The ANC retains more than a third of the seats in Parliament, although it lost its majority in 2024.