The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday said it had asked authorities to charge the country's deputy president, Paul Mashatile, with corruption, upping pressure on the ruling party ahead of general elections.
Mashatile has for months been at the centre of media investigations alleging he benefited from luxury properties made available to him by his son-in-law and others in return for help securing tenders and other favours.
"We have laid an affidavit and supplied a charge sheet," John Steenhuisen, head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), a liberal opposition party, told journalists, after handing a dossier detailing the alleged wrongdoing to the police in Cape Town.
"We hope to continue to use whatever channels we have to make sure that justice is done, and the matter is properly investigated."
A spokesman for Mashatile, who took up his current post in March 2023 after being appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
He has previously denied the allegations, which pre-date his appointment as second in command and revolve around his time in provincial and national government.
Last month, the DA had called on Ramaphosa, who promised to stamp out corruption upon first coming to power in 2018, to fire him.
The president's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, later responded on social media, inviting "any organisation or individual that has information on criminality or wrongdoing" to "submit that information to the police".
The latest development comes as Ramaphosa's historically dominant African National Congress (ANC) is struggling in the polls, months before what is expected to be the most competitive election in decades.
In power since the advent of democracy in 1994, the party of late anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has been tainted by graft and mismanagement amid high unemployment and a slumbering economy.
Polls suggest it could win as little as 40% of the vote which would force it to seek a coalition government to stay in power.
The DA, which has formed a coalition with several other groups, is currently battling for second place with the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, polling between 19 percent and 31 percent.
AFP