Crypto News: Impeachment threat

So much for "Ramaphoria."

Cyril Ramaphosa's rise to become South Africa's president in February 2018 after winning an African National Congress election two months earlier brought with it a wave of optimism — one so striking that it merited its own name.

Key reading:

He promised to end the corruption that became rampant in Africa's most developed economy and restore trust in the ruling party following almost a decade of scandals under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

Now the very rules he installed to force leaders facing serious charges to step down, and that were used to drive out opponents, may torpedo his presidency.

Party officials will meet today to discuss an inquiry, led by a former chief justice, that found there may be a case for impeachment. Its report concluded Ramaphosa may have violated sections of the constitution after the theft of $580,000 stashed in a sofa at his wild-game farm.

While the former labor union leader who is also one of the nation's richest people vows he did nothing wrong, the panel said there were serious questions about how the theft was handled, why the foreign currency wasn't declared, and the source of the money (a Sudanese businessman bought buffaloes from his ranch).

The opposition and some of his own party have already called for him to resign.

It's not certain those appeals will be met, and Ramaphosa's supporters will likely rally behind him. A united ANC has the numbers to dismiss the report in a parliamentary vote on Dec. 6 and he has the backing to win a second term as party leader in two weeks.

What is clear is that the promise his presidency brought of a break from the crises of the past was just a passing breeze. — Gordon Bell

Supporters await the arrival of Ramaphosa in Soweto in 2019. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

Click here to listen to our Twitter space conversation yesterday about the protests in China and the world's reaction. And if you're enjoying this newsletter, sign up here for Balance of Power.

Covid pivot | China is starting to chart a path toward rejoining the rest of the world in living with Covid-19 as it faces pressure from surging cases and public anger at its punishing restrictions. The move comes exactly three years since the first documented coronavirus patient developed symptoms in the central city of Wuhan.

Beijing will allow some virus-infected people to isolate at home, starting with residents of the city's most populous district, in a landmark shift.

Chinese concern | Chinese President Xi Jinping called for efforts to bring calm to the war in Ukraine in talks with European Council President Charles Michel, a sign that Beijing may be trying to address one of its biggest points of friction with Europe. China has refrained from criticizing Russia over the war in Ukraine, blaming the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for Moscow's actions.

Two months after the Kremlin mobilized men to fight in Ukraine, up to a third of Russian industry may face a deficit of workers in the most severe labor crunch since 1993, according to a Gaidar Institute poll.
Read our rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine here.

Temperatures across Europe will likely plummet this month due to cold air from the Arctic after a relatively mild November, adding to pressure on natural gas supplies and testing the region's fragile energy networks. Benchmark European gas contracts are four times higher than normal for this time of year, leaving consumers facing soaring costs.

The Obama effect | Barack Obama is heading back to Georgia to campaign for Democrat Raphael Warnock in the Senate run-off with his Donald Trump-backed Republican opponent, Herschel Walker. Obama's return provides a unique advantage: the first Black US president wading into a rare statewide contest in which both contenders are Black men.

Hot chips | Taiwan-based TSMC, the world's go-to supplier of semiconductors for electric vehicles to smartphones, will offer to produce chips that are more advanced than previously announced at its US plant when it opens in 2024, sources say. President Joe Biden, who made $50 billion available for domestic chip production to reduce American dependence on overseas manufacturers, is due to visit the factory site in Arizona next week.

Stunning decline | Three years ago the World Bank classified Sri Lanka as upper middle-income, in the same category as Brazil and Turkey. Today a third of its 22 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance. For all but about five years since 2005, Matt Campbell writes, the country has been ruled by the Rajapaksas, a clan that ushered in what critics say was an era of operatic corruption, with billions of dollars in public funds siphoned off and secreted abroad.

Then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrives for the Hambantota port opening in 2010. Photographer: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Bloomberg TV and Radio air Balance of Power with David Westin on weekdays from 12 to 1pm ET, with a second hour on Bloomberg Radio from 1 to 2pm ET. You can watch and listen on Bloomberg channels and online here.

The US warned Turkey against a new military campaign into Kurdish-controlled parts of Syria, saying that some recent airstrikes had posed a threat to US personnel working with Syrian partners to defeat the Islamic State.
The western Indian state of Gujarat is voting today in what will be a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hold over his home turf and an indicator of his popularity with national elections less than two years away.
A US House committee can now get a look at six years of Trump's tax returns, a week after the Supreme Court cleared the way for their release.
Malaysia's new Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will face a vote of confidence in parliament on Dec. 19, according to a notice sent out to lawmakers today.
Efforts to restore peace in Ethiopia after two years of fighting between government and rebel forces are being undermined by Eritrea, whose troops continue to attack civilians across its southern border, sources say.

And finally ... The betting industry has been transformed from one of drab shops that smelled of cigarette smoke to a digital wonderland where anyone with a smartphone can access a maze of blackjack tables, flashing slot machines and virtual horse races. Yet as Gavin Finch, Harry Wilson and Ann Choi report, the rise of online gambling has led to mounting rates of addiction and suicides in the UK, where authorities have largely outsourced consumer protection, in a warning sign to the rest of the world.