South Africa's Risk Heightened While Ramaphosa Considers his Future

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 02 Dec 2022 by Iraj Abedian

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President Ramaphosa finds himself in a crisis riddled with complexity. He has few options, but none is exciting or under his total control. When a few months back, Arthur Fraser, South Africa’s x-spy master, leaked the theft of US dollars from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala Farm, the President dismissed it altogether. Arthur Fraser has been a die-heart Zuma supporter for decades, not only did President Zuma appoint him as the Head of National Security Agency, but during the Ramaphosa presidency, the RET camp within the ANC ensured that Fraser stayed in a top position, although Ramaphosa moved him to become the Director General of Department of Correctional Services. That offered Fraser an opportunity to release Zuma from prison on parole- arguably illegally. In this context, the nation regarded Fraser’s allegations as part of the plots and machinations of infighting within the ANC factions. Furthermore, Fraser had been accused of state-capture-schemes siphoning out billions of public funds via various projects within the National Security Agency. So, his allegations were not taken too seriously by the nation either. On 1 June 2022, however, Fraser laid a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa for alleged forex abuses and other allegedly criminal conduct. He walked into a police station, laid the complaint and dropped his bombshell. Ever since then, Ramaphosa has been on the back foot, and today the president is checkmated. His political future is on the line, his image is shattered, and his legacy is ruined. More importantly, South Africa has landed, yet again, in a vortex of a potential constitutional crisis. The ANC is deeply fractured, and in less than two weeks is set to ha...