Ramaphosa says he won’t resign as South Africa revives impeachment cash probe

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South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that he will not resign even as Parliament moves to establish an impeachment committee to reinvestigate allegations linked to a cash scandal. Speaking in a televised address, Ramaphosa said he would take legal action to challenge a parliamentary report and argued that resigning would “preempt a process defined by the Constitution.”

Ramaphosa’s announcement came hours after Parliament said it would set up an impeachment committee in line with a decision by the country’s Constitutional Court last week. The court ruling overturned a 2022 parliamentary step that had blocked impeachment proceedings, finding that the procedure used at the time was unconstitutional.

In his televised remarks, Ramaphosa said he would “therefore respectfully want to make it clear that I will not resign.” He said that choosing to step down would give credence to what he described as flaws in the panel report and would preempt the process now under constitutional procedure.

Ramaphosa said he would legally challenge the parliamentary report that concluded there was credible evidence of misconduct. He said that challenge is likely to delay any further impeachment timetable, while the impeachment committee carries out an investigation before lawmakers could vote on whether to impeach.

Parliament’s statement did not provide a time frame for when the committee would complete its work or when any impeachment vote might be held. Under the Constitution, impeaching the president would require the support of at least two-thirds of lawmakers in South Africa’s 400-member Parliament.

The dispute now returns to a set of allegations that have already been examined through a 2022 independent report and later court review. The report at the time found “legitimate doubt” over the source of the money and said some evidence suggested the amount was more than the $580,000 Ramaphosa said he claimed.

The report also said Ramaphosa used his presidential protection unit’s head and others in an effort to “surreptitiously” track down suspects connected to the theft. Ramaphosa denied wrongdoing, and he has said the cash—held in U.S. dollars—came from the legitimate sale of buffaloes from his ranch.

Opponents have called for Ramaphosa to step aside while the process unfolds. The allegations were first made in 2022 by a former head of South Africa’s state security agency, who went to a police station and accused Ramaphosa of money laundering and other offenses tied to the cash. The theft is alleged to have occurred in 2020 and to have remained secret, including claims that it was stashed in a sofa at Ramaphosa’s game ranch.

Political context may affect any eventual parliamentary vote. Ramaphosa’s African National Congress lost its Parliament majority in the 2024 election and now governs in a coalition of 10 parties, with the ANC remaining the largest party. The impeachment process would still depend on whether the coalition’s lawmakers supported an impeachment vote, if one is reached after the committee’s investigation.