South Africa’s Parliament has appointed an independent panel to determine whether President Cyril Ramaphosa should face impeachment over the alleged cover-up of a heist at his luxury farmhouse.
National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula named the panel in a statement overnight Wednesday, according to local news outlet News24.
The three-man panel is headed by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo and includes a former High Court judge and a university professor. It will have 30 days to report its findings.
To remove a president requires a two-thirds majority vote in the National Assembly and that could be a tall order as Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) party commands more than two-thirds of the seats.
The scandal around Ramaphosa erupted in June after South Africa’s former national spy boss, Arthur Fraser, filed a complaint with the police.
He alleged that robbers broke into the president’s farm in the northeast of the country, where they stole $4m in cash stashed in furniture.
Ramaphosa hid the robbery from the authorities and instead organised for the robbers to be kidnapped, questioned and then bribed into silence.
Credit: Aljazeera.com
