President Cyril Ramaphosa is under increasing pressure in parliament over the theft of an undisclosed amount in dollars from his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo — and the alleged cover-up of the burglary.
Last week, ANC MPs sought to defend the president in parliament. But as the house descended into chaos during the Q&A session, the scene was reminiscent of the dark days under former president Jacob Zuma. Back then, the party faithful in the ANC benches carefully shielded their president, allowing him to shrug off accountability to parliament — and the people of SA.
But while the similarity was striking at first, a careful consideration of the Phala Phala saga suggests a different state of affairs.
Zuma’s obscene splurge on his private residence at Nkandla was first reported in December 2009 by the late Mail & Guardian journalist Mandy Rossouw.
It took more than five years — and only after then public protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on the R250m worth of “security” upgrades, including a “fire pool” and an amphitheatre — for opposition parties in parliament to begin properly pushing back against Zuma’s administration, demanding accountability.
It was around that time that parliament really lost its way. It set up an ad hoc committee to consider Madonsela’s findings. Only, that body would eventually absolve Zuma of any wrongdoing in the matter — a finding that was subsequently challenged in the Constitutional Court and found wanting. Zuma, as a result, was ordered by the court to pay back the money.
It’s clear that opposition parties have learnt from that experience as they attempt to hold Ramaphosa accountable for “farmgate”.
But the circumstances surrounding the theft remain murky.
At present, the only source of information is Arthur Fraser — the man implicated in chief justice Raymond Zondo’s report on state capture for his alleged role in looting the State Security Agency (SSA). Investigations into that apparent plunder had been halted by Zuma during his tenure as president.
Fraser, of course, is also the man who released Zuma on medical parole last year.
The FM understands that the executive’s plan of action to implement the recommendations of Zondo’s inquiry into state capture will be submitted to parliament by next month’s deadline. Among these is that Fraser be investigated by the Hawks over the alleged looting of the SSA.
At this point, Arthur Fraser’s allegations against Ramaphosa remain just that — allegations
— What it means:
It is difficult to weed out the truth from those implicated in the Phala Phala burglary.
One of those named by Fraser, for example, reportedly claims no knowledge of the incident. As does Namibian national Urbanus Shaumbwako, who appeared in the Cape Town regional court last week on charges unrelated to Phala Phala. He is seeking protection from the Hawks, who he claims have been trying to question him on Phala Phala in the absence of his attorney.
It gets even stranger. Shaumbwako’s attorney, Reon Heckrath, told the court on Thursday that his client feels “unsafe” in Pollsmoor prison, especially after hearing that his friend and fellow Namibian national Immanuela David — also linked to the Phala Phala theft — had been shot dead in Joburg.
The Sunday Times, however, has reported that David was not shot, but is in hiding.
By all accounts, the Hawks investigation into the matter is far from over. Spokesperson Brig Thandi Mbambo tells the FM that there are “many legs” to the matter, and that the unit is investigating them.
It means Fraser’s allegations of money laundering and corruption remain just that at this stage — allegations.
Mbambo says the police, too, are investigating the matter to the extent that their own members have been implicated in the affair. Fraser in his affidavit repeatedly tells of receiving information from Ramaphosa’s police-appointed security team, and levels serious allegations against its members.
Then there is the public protector investigation into the matter.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) — a new party in parliament largely seen as a front for Zuma’s radical economic transformation faction in the ANC — has laid a complaint about Phala Phala with the office of the public protector.
As it happens, Zuma’s spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi, is the ATM’s chief of policy and strategy.
The ATM is also behind the section 89 impeachment process initiated against Ramaphosa in parliament, and it put forward the question on Phala Phala in last week’s parliamentary session.
Though the ATM’s complaint was laid with the public protector on June 1, there have been some delays in investigating the matter. These include an extension requested by Ramaphosa to respond to 31 questions from the public protector — a petition that was granted by acting public protector Kholeka Gcaleka. (Ramaphosa has since submitted his answers.)
Opposition parties have put pressure on Gcaleka to release Ramaphosa’s answers publicly, but her office has refused, saying she cannot release his response before concluding her report, in line with past practices by her office. This week, opposition parties are set to picket at her office demanding that she release her findings.
For his part, Ramaphosa says he will participate fully with the potential impeachment process in parliament, which is now setting up a panel to assess whether this is necessary.
“I am not indispensable. The ANC is what really matters in this process,” he told journalists in Mpumalanga over the weekend.
Ramaphosa maintains that he has not committed any kind of criminal act, and that he will co-operate with all investigations into the matter.
Enter the Reserve Bank.
The Bank, too, has begun a probe through its financial surveillance department, which administers exchange control regulations and investigates contraventions. It has asked Ramaphosa for details about the source of the dollars stashed at his farm. He was given an initial 21 days to respond, though this was extended by a further 15.
After the submission of Ramaphosa’s response, he was asked for “further information and details” by the department. He had until September 8 to respond.
But insiders tell the FM the Phala Phala matter, at worst, would amount to a regulatory infringement — an administrative issue, not a criminal one.
As a constitutionalist, Ramaphosa should know accounting to parliament is paramount. He should account to parliament first, then deal with the political fallout
— Lawson Naidoo
All in all, there is very little to go on, as not one investigation has produced a conclusive finding — very much unlike Nkandla, where Madonsela’s report was crystal clear.
This, says Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution director Lawson Naidoo, is why Ramaphosa should have been more open in parliament.
“I accept that there may be issues he cannot talk about, but that does not mean [he] cannot say anything,” Naidoo tells the FM. “As a constitutionalist, he should know accounting to parliament is paramount. He should account to parliament first, then deal with the political fallout.”
As far as independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga is concerned, Ramaphosa is using the legal complexities to bypass the political ones. “He is not a priest, he is a politician,” he explains. “Yes, Fraser may have sinister motives, but you cannot keep deferring the matter due to political detractors.”
Insiders who are sympathetic to the president but wish to remain anonymous believe that, no matter what Ramaphosa says, those lined up against him will find a way to twist the situation to suit their own narrative — hence his preference for sticking to the process and allowing that to unfold.
Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, speaking to the SABC this week, said Ramaphosa is taking the correct approach in following his lawyers’ advice and remaining mum on the matter.
But in the absence of information, speculation is rife. And at present, it seems there are two very different potential outcomes to the saga.
The first is that Ramaphosa is being intentionally evasive to hide complicity in illegal and unethical events that took place at his farm — something that would be a first for him.
Alternatively, SA is being led by the nose by shady spooks, unscrupulous thieves and opportunistic political parties. Sadly, that wouldn’t be a first for the country.
* Additional reporting by Sandiso Phaliso
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