South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced he will not step down from his position as an impeachment process unfolds in Parliament after an earlier ruling by the country's highest judicial authority.
Ramaphosa made the statement in a televised address on Monday evening, stating that he respects the judiciary but has no intention of resigning.
The impeachment process stems from an incident in 2020 where a vast sum of undeclared US dollars were stolen from his farmstead, known as the Phala Phala incident.
The incident sparked a huge controversy regarding legal and ethical questions around it, leading to a Section 89 Independent Panel inquiry.
The panel initially found that there was prima facie evidence that the president may have committed a serious violation of the law, bringing the country to the brink of an impeachment process in late 2022.
However, the South African Reserve Bank and the Public Protector later cleared the president of certain legal breaches.
The parliamentary impeachment issue came to the fore again after a ruling by the Constitutional Court last Friday that effectively revived the Section 89 process.
The apex court ruled that the National Assembly had acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally in December 2022 when it voted to reject the report by the Section 89 Independent Panel.
