ANC Talks in Focus as Cash-in-Sofa Furor Torments Ramaphosa

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(Bloomberg) — Top leaders of South Africa’s governing party gather on Friday to discuss their response to an advisory panel’s finding that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution.

The meeting comes a day after Ramaphosa considered resigning over the panel’s report that investigated his alleged failure to properly report a robbery at his game farm, in which he said $580,000 hidden in a sofa was stolen. Investor concern that he 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.

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Read: South Africa Turmoil Sends Rand Into a Tailspin, Yields Soar

Dozens of African National Congress officials who sit on the party’s National Executive Committee are scheduled to begin meeting at 2 p.m. on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Their discussions are expected to continue into the weekend and the outcome may only be announced on Sunday evening.

Ramaphosa’s key supporters gathered on Thursday night to thrash out a plan to keep him in power, according to two of those who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to comment. Despite the findings that Ramaphosa had a case to answer, there was no indication that he had abused public funds, which should count in his favor, they said.

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Under the constitution, Ramaphosa’s deputy, David Mabuza, would be first in line to succeed him should he vacate his post. That eventuality has also galvanized the incumbent’s backers because Mabuza isn’t an acceptable alternative to any of the ANC’s main factions, the people said. Ramaphosa’s detractors also haven’t come up with another feasible candidate to field as ANC leader when the party holds internal elections later this month, they said.

The president has been engaging a broad range of people on what steps he should take, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya said in a televised briefing on Thursday. Any decision Ramaphosa takes will be in the best interests of the country and won’t be rushed, he said.

“All options are on the table,” Magwenya said. “He is not panicking, that I can assure you.”

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Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, who is also the chairman of the ANC, said in televised remarks on Friday that Ramaphosa shouldn’t step down.

Markets showed signs of stabilizing on Friday as investors await developments. The rand advanced 0.9% to 17.5046 per dollar by 10:36 a.m. in Johannesburg, paring its decline since Wednesday to 2.9%. Yields on benchmark government 10-year bonds fell 16 basis points to 11.39% after soaring 74 basis points on Thursday.

—With assistance from Robert Brand.

(Updates with efforts to keep Ramaphosa in office, starting in fourth paragraph.)