Johannesburg - African Transformation Movement (ATM) president Vuyo Zungula says that as a party it is their belief that Parliament has a special obligation to hold the executive accountable.
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, he said that his party had done so by pushing for this process, as this was the first time that such allegations against a president had occurred in a democratic South Africa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is accused of fraud, money laundering and kidnapping owing to an unreported robbery and theft incident at his Phala Phala farm on February 20, 2020, has been under pressure since former state security head Arthur Fraser laid a complaint at Rosebank police station on June 1, 2022.
ATM, which has been at the forefront of the process to have the president impeached, previously highlighted that Ramaphosa had already publicly announced that this was a commercial transaction where he sold livestock and game.
They indicated that Ramaphosa put himself in a situation that exposed him to a conflict of interest between his official duties as president and private interests.
“The ATM welcomes that the Speaker has switched on the process in terms of section 89 of the Constitution. Noting that the affidavit of Mr Arthur Fraser as submitted in the Rosebank police station confirmed a lot of prima facie evidence by way of videos, bank statements and photographs of people with hands tied behind their backs and foreign currency to corroborate serious allegations and the flouting of immigration laws,” the party added.
The Star