South Africa’s parliament has voted against starting impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Gatekeepers News reports that the vote came after a parliamentary report alleged that Ramaphosa illegally hid at least $580,000 in cash in a sofa at his Phala Phala game ranch.
It said he did not report the theft of the money to the police in order to avoid questions over how he got the foreign currency and why he had not declared it to authorities.
The report prompted Ramaphosa’s opponents, opposition parties and even rivals within his African National Congress (ANC) party, to call for him to step down.
The legislators, however, voted 214 to 148 against the move to impeach Ramaphosa.
The ruling ANC party, which holds a majority in the parliament, largely stood with Ramaphosa, preventing the motion from getting the two-thirds vote needed to proceed with impeachment.
Four ANC members of parliament, however, showed their opposition to Ramaphosa by voting in favour of impeachment and a few more did not show up for the vote.
