ANC Closes Ranks Behind Ramaphosa as NEC Chooses Loyalty Over Liability in Phala Phala Fight

The real Commander in Chief President Cyril Ramaphosa remains in charge against all odds.

By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief, The Azanian, Politics

JOHANNESBURG – The ANC has drawn its line and dared the opposition to cross it. At a tense special sitting of the National Executive Committee this week, the party resolved to stand fully behind President Cyril Ramaphosa, rejecting calls for him to resign over the Phala Phala scandal and preparing for a parliamentary fight that could define the rest of his term.  

The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling that Parliament’s 2022 vote to halt impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa was unconstitutional.

That judgment revived the Section 89 process and opened the door for a new impeachment committee to examine whether the president violated the Constitution and anti-corruption laws after thieves stole about R10 million in foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm in 2020.  

Inside the NEC, the debate was not about guilt or innocence. It was about power, survival, and the cost of abandoning a sitting president three years before the next national election. The outcome was blunt: the ANC will shield Ramaphosa in Parliament and contest the inquiry on its merits.  

“The agreement is clear, we will support the president on this warpath because we believe we have to give him the benefit of the doubt that the Reserve Bank cleared him,” a senior NEC member told The Azanian.  

That position puts the ANC at odds with its own alliance partners. SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila said the party would not back Ramaphosa in the National Assembly, warning that defending him would destroy the SACP’s credibility ahead of the 2026 local elections. COSATU has taken a similar line, saying workers cannot be asked to defend a leader who cannot produce a convincing explanation for the cash found at his farm.  

ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe dismissed the criticism as irrelevant. The SACP and COSATU, he said, have no seats in Parliament and no authority over how ANC MPs vote. “Leave the SACP. They are not a party in Parliament so they can’t talk about party members,” he told eNCA.  

Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Monday night with a defiance that mirrored the NEC’s tone. He said he would not resign and argued that accepting the Section 89 panel’s findings would give legitimacy to a report “that unfortunately has grave flaws.”

The panel found prima facie evidence that he may have breached the Constitution and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. Ramaphosa maintains the money came from legitimate cattle sales and was declared to the Presidential Protection Unit after the theft.  

The NEC’s resolution instructs ANC MPs to vote against proceeding with impeachment when the matter reaches the National Assembly. It is a calculation that relies on the party’s 159 seats holding firm and on the opposition failing to reach the 267 votes needed for a two-thirds majority.  

Opposition parties are preparing for that fight. The DA, EFF, ATM, and ActionSA have all welcomed the formation of the committee. DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said the inquiry must remain independent and free from political interference. EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said the party would ensure the process was not reduced to a rubber stamp for ANC protection.  

The parliamentary numbers make the outcome uncertain. The ANC alone cannot block impeachment. It needs either the support of smaller parties or the absence of enough opposition MPs on the day of the vote. That reality explains why the NEC’s public show of unity matters as much as the legal arguments. It is meant to prevent defections and to signal to wavering ANC MPs that breaking ranks carries a political cost.  

The Phala Phala saga has dogged Ramaphosa since 2022. The initial attempt to establish an impeachment committee collapsed after the ANC used its majority to block it. The Constitutional Court has now ruled that move unlawful, forcing Parliament to start again.  

For the ANC, the stakes go beyond one man. A successful impeachment would remove a sitting president, trigger a leadership crisis, and hand the opposition a political opening it has not had since 1994. A failed impeachment would leave Ramaphosa wounded but still in office, and would expose the limits of opposition unity.  

The Azanian understands that the NEC also debated the reputational damage the scandal has caused the party. Some members warned that defending Ramaphosa too aggressively would alienate voters already disillusioned with corruption and economic stagnation. Others argued that abandoning him would confirm the ANC’s reputation for eating its leaders and would hand the state over to forces hostile to the liberation movement.  

In the end, the committee chose institutional loyalty over individual liability. It is a gamble rooted in the belief that the Reserve Bank’s clearance on the foreign exchange violation gives Ramaphosa enough legal cover to survive politically, even if public trust remains low.  

Whether that calculation holds will be decided in the National Assembly, where procedure, numbers, and nerve will matter more than statements issued in Luthuli House. For now, the message is clear. The ANC is closing ranks. The fight for Ramaphosa’s political future begins in Parliament, and it will be fought in public.