A senior figure in South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has publicly backed Cyril Ramaphosa, signalling that the party is likely to close ranks as pressure builds over the long-running “Farmgate” scandal.
Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula threw his support behind the president ahead of a key National Executive Committee meeting, dismissing calls for Ramaphosa to resign as opportunistic.
His intervention comes just days after South Africa’s Constitutional Court revived impeachment proceedings that had been blocked by the ANC in 2022, reopening scrutiny over the theft of cash from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm.
Mbalula argued that the court ruling does not compel the president to step down, adding that the party would consider the full judgment on its own terms. Ramaphosa himself did not attend the meeting, allowing senior party officials to debate the issue freely.
The scandal centres on roughly $580,000 in foreign currency that Ramaphosa says was stolen during a 2020 break-in. Questions have persisted over how the money was obtained, whether it was properly declared, and why it was stored in furniture rather than in a bank.
For a president who rose to power in 2018 on a reformist, anti-corruption platform, the controversy has been politically damaging.
Even so, the arithmetic in parliament remains in his favour.
An impeachment vote would require a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, a threshold that analysts say is unlikely to be met. Although the ANC lost its outright majority in recent elections, it still holds roughly 40% of seats, enough to block such a motion.
Political observers expect the party to consolidate support around Ramaphosa, betting that internal unity will outweigh reputational risks as the process unfolds.
For now, the battle is shifting from the courts to the political arena, where loyalty, numbers and timing may matter more than the allegations themselves.
