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Cyril Ramaphosa: South Africa's president considers future amid corruption scandal - BBC
Dec 02, 2022 1 min, 42 secs
South Africans are waiting, many in deep trepidation, to find out if President Cyril Ramaphosa is about to resign in the wake of a murky and highly politicised scandal involving cattle, a sofa, and the theft of hundreds of thousands (and possibly millions) of dollars.

A well-known political rival, linked to South Africa's disgraced former President, Jacob Zuma, dramatically revealed allegations that millions of dollars - hidden in a sofa - had gone missing from Mr Ramaphosa's high-end Phala Phala game farm, and that there had been a police cover-up.

I think he was very clumsy and careless… and out of touch," said Nomboniso Gasa, a political analyst.

It's time for something new," said political analyst Thembisa Fakude.

But even a moderately competent replacement for Mr Ramaphosa is likely to shake the markets and drive away the few foreign investors still willing to give South Africa a chance, at a time when the economy - grappling with almost daily power cuts - is struggling to recover from the pandemic, and from the years of state corruption during Mr Zuma's era.

That may be the case, but with no single, credible party poised to capitalise on the ANC's struggles, the concern here is that South Africa is heading towards an era of deeply unpredictable and unstable coalition politics, easily exploited by smaller populist parties.

As for President Ramaphosa himself - many wonder whether he has the stomach for a long fight, or whether the billionaire businessman, credited for his institution-building approach to government, but criticised for a lack of political muscle - may prefer to leave the ANC to its battles and return to his cattle ranch.

We needed someone with a more muscular approach," said political analyst Eusebius McKaiser?

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