By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says he didn’t intentionally ‘snub’ the ANC’s National Executive meeting which was meant to take on Friday.
Ramaphosa’s office said he and ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile decided that the president should not attend the meeting as he was “going to be a subject of discussion”.
The president’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa returned to Pretoria on Thursday night.
“If he was required to be at the NEC it would have taken 25 minutes for him to avail himself,” said Magwenya.
His detractors though have expressed anger at what they define as undermining of the organisation by its chief deployee to government.
Mashatile said the meeting was called without an official report from the top six officials and National Working Committee, which is procedurally incorrect.
Ramaphosa has been under fire since the outcome of the Section 89 Independent Panel was leaked to the public. Calls for him to resign came as the panel, led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, found prima facie evidence that he may have violated the Constitution and abused his powers.
However, the NEC decided that the report should be given to the officials of the ANC first and they must process it, convene a National Working Committee (NWC), then convene an NEC before 6th December.
It has been a tense few days for South Africa after it emerged on Thursday that Ramaphosa intended to resign.
Some of his cabinet colleagues and provincial supporters gathered and persuaded him not to quit. They urged him to fight on, arguing that his departure would be damaging for the country.
The ANC national working committee is due to meet at 2pm on Sunday. Ramaphosa’s backers are concerned that they might have a tough time at the national executive committee meeting on Monday.
They are also preparing for a possible parliamentary debate on December 6, meant to look into the panel’s report. Ramaphosa has indicated his intention to launch his legal review of the report, but it is likely to have an impact on whether the debate goes ahead.
The scandal rattled South African financial markets. The rand posted its biggest weekly decline against the dollar in three months.
If Ramaphosa survives Monday’s NEC meeting, which seems likely given the strength of his support, he could still face impeachment in a drawn-out process. But he is likely to survive even that action given the ANC’s dominance of parliament.