President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria - The African Transformation Movement (ATM) has referred acting Public Protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka to the ANC’s provincial elective conference in Limpopo, where President Cyril Ramaphosa told his comrades that he was “selling” animals.
The ATM sought to remind Gcaleka about the public admission that Ramaphosa was doing paid work outside his role as leader of the country, following her preliminary findings that he did not break the Executive Code of Ethics.
The debate about the president’s commitment to serving the interests of the country, as opposed to his own, surfaced in June last year, when former State Security Agency head Arthur Fraser wrote a 48-page affidavit asking the SAPS to investigate a multimillion-dollar scandal involving a burglary at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Bela-Bela, Waterberg, Limpopo.
At the centre of the treasure find was a domestic worker from Syferskuil in the North West, who reportedly made several individuals aware that there was a lot of money stuffed in furniture at the farm.
The revelation created the biggest political storm around Ramaphosa’s integrity as a transparent leader.
Since reports of the burglary became public, multiple institutions have been investigating the truthfulness of claims that a sitting president instructed police to trace and “torture” suspects involved in the burglary.
The ATM was the first party to ask Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to get to the bottom of the matter, especially when it came to abuse of office and the possible violation of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act.
However, Mkhwebane was suspended a day after she had announced she would investigate the head of State, which led to the Western Cape Division of the High Court later ruling that Ramaphosa’s suspension of the Chapter 9 institution leader was “retaliatory, unlawful, tainted, irrational and invalid”.
Mkhwebane could not be reinstated pending confirmation of the damning ruling by the Constitutional Court.
Her deputy, Gcaleka, took over the investigation and spent nine months probing the Phala Phala matter.
In her leaked preliminary findings, Gcaleka found that the ATM’s allegations that the president breached the Ethics Code were unsubstantiated.
Instead, she found that Ramaphosa had not broken any rules but was merely an owner of a wildlife company under the management of his staff.
The ATM has expressed disappointment at such a finding.
In line with its right to respond to the preliminary report, the opposition party has submitted a YouTube video link to the Limpopo conference event where Ramaphosa is seen explaining why there was so much money at his farm.
“We are certain that this submission will assist your office in the assessment of all information as reflected on in the annexures and other supporting documents enclosed in this email,” wrote ATM president Vuyo Zungula.
In the video link, Ramaphosa stated that he was aware of the public interest surrounding the farmgate scandal.
“I want to affirm that I was not involved in any criminal activity. I’m a farmer. I’m in the cattle business and the game business.
“Through that business which has been declared to Parliament and all over, I buy and I sell animals. The sales are sometimes through cash or sometimes through transfers.
“This that is being reported was a clear business transaction of selling animals. The amount involved is far less than what has been bandied (about) in the press. All this was money from proceeds of selling animals,” Ramaphosa said.
The president later confirmed to Parliament that R10.7 million was the amount stolen in foreign currency, which was $580 000 in February 2020.
ATM spokesperson Zama Ntshona said they were given a 10-day deadline to respond to the preliminary findings.
“We can confirm that we have submitted our response to the interim report of the acting public protector advocate Gcaleka that has cleared Ramaphosa of all the gross violations of the act,” Ntshona said.
In the meantime, Gcaleka has requested the media and politicians to allow her to produce her final report after receiving inputs from those involved.
Pretoria News