Ramaphosa will fight back

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa no longer plans to resign and will seek a second term as leader of the governing party, as he weighs asking the courts to review a report that found there may be a case for his impeachment.

The decisions represent a volte-face by Ramaphosa two days after he considered quitting in the wake of an advisory panel’s report that said he may have violated the constitution in a scandal involving the theft of at least $580,000 stashed in a sofa at his game farm.

The governing African National Congress is scheduled to hold its five-yearly elective conference in two weeks.

“Resigning was one of the many options” the president considered this week, his spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said by phone on Saturday. “Now it’s off the table.”

Ramaphosa has drawn criticism from senior ANC officials after the advisory panel’s report, including cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who has said he should resign over the scandal.

ANC leaders are preparing to meet on the outskirts of Johannesburg this weekend to discuss their response to the panel’s findings, before a vote Tuesday in parliament on whether or not to adopt the report.

Investor concerns that Ramaphosa might step down over the scandal triggered the rand’s worst one-day loss since May and the biggest selloff of government bonds since 2015 on Thursday.

Some of those losses were recouped after key allies closed ranks behind the president.

“Further evidence that the president will fight convincingly to clear his name will lift the rand,” Annabel Bishop, chief economist at Investec Bank Ltd., said in a note to clients on Friday.

“Although risks remain and the elevated political noise has afflicted domestic markets.”

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said on Friday that there was a 10% chance of Ramaphosa leaving office.

Those comments came after Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, the chairman of the governing African National Congress, said it would be premature for Ramaphosa to resign.

We will never dump Ramaphosa never never ever. He is our President 🙏🙌✊️

— FIKILE MBALULA | MR FIX (@MbalulaFikile) December 2, 2022

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Ramaphosa will fight back