South Africa’s Ramaphosa and the law

After the 2024 election, the South African president remained, but the new government was a coalition with some parties willing to impeach him. Now the outcome is uncertain, but he is just as much subject to the law as everyone else.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing allegations he kept a large sum of foreign cash hidden in a sofa on his hobby farm, and failed to report its subsequent theft.Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

August 4, 2026

LONDON, U.K.—It’s outrageous. You’re at your hobby farm in the country, just pottering around, so you stuff the $580,000 in your pocket under the sofa cushions temporarily just to get it out of the way. Then you forget it when you are gathering things up to go back to ...

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