The Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has asked South African president Cyril Ramaphosa how he came to have $4 million in cash at his farm in Limpopo. In a statement released last month former State Security Agency (SSA) Director-General Arthur Fraser said he had filed a criminal complaint against President Ramaphosa at the Rosebank Police Station in Johannesburg.
Mr. Fraser said the charges follow in the wake of a coverup of the theft of over $4 million in February 2020, in collusion with a domestic worker, at the President’s Phala Phala farm in Waterberg, Limpopo. He alleged the president had sought to defeat the ends of justice by kidnapping of suspects, interrogating and bribing them and thereafter concealing the crime from the police.
On 10 June 2022 a statement released on behalf of the Most Rev Thabo Makgoba by his office urged the president to come clean about the source of the funds.
“Although there does not appear to be any equivalence between the actions of President Ramaphosa in keeping large amounts of cash on his farm and the crimes committed under the previous administration, the public is owed quick and clear answers on whether he kept foreign currency in contravention of Reserve Bank regulations, and whether tax has been paid on sales from his farm. There cannot be one law for the rich and well-connected, and another for the rest of us.
“While the disgraceful scenes in Parliament yesterday are to be condemned in the strongest of terms, they illustrate how transparently and openly leaders of Government need to behave if they are to avoid opportunistic attacks on their leadership which damage the country and its image in the world.”
Opposition leaders have asked the president to step down, while the ruling African National Congress has expressed its confidence in President Ramaphonsa’s leadership. A party spokesman said it was too soon to speak of the president stepping aside. The ANC “has again expressed full confidence in the president of the ANC. You step aside when you are indicted to appear in a court of law and have been charged with serious crimes. As matters stand, President Cyril Ramaphosa has not been charged with any crime.”
