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Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has told a probe into a burglary scandal enmeshing him that $580 000 in cash stolen from beneath sofa cushions at his ranch came from a cattle buyer, according to leaked documents on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The sum is part of what the media has reported as a cash haul of $4 million that was stolen at Ramaphosa’s farm – a burglary that he is accused of trying to cover up.<\/p>\n
A three-person special panel investigating the affair submitted on Wednesday its report to parliament, which next week will decide whether to push ahead with a vote to impeach the president.<\/p>\n
READ THE PRESIDENT\u2019S SUBMISSIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n Ramaphosa told the inquiry that the accusations against him are “without any merit,” according to a leak of documents published by local media.<\/p>\n “This matter ought not to be taken any further,” he said in his submission.<\/p>\n However, the leak provided juicy insights into a scandal that has tarnished Ramaphosa’s clean image, imperilling his bid for a second term at the helm of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).<\/p>\n ‘Cash and cushions’<\/strong><\/p>\n The affair erupted in June after the former national spy boss Arthur Fraser filed a complaint with the police.<\/p>\n It alleged that Ramaphosa had hidden a burglary at his farm at Phala Phala in Limpopo from the authorities.<\/p>\n Instead, he allegedly organised for the robbers to be kidnapped and bribed into silence.<\/p>\n The president has denied any wrongdoing, and spelt out his position at length in the 138-page submission.<\/p>\n “I did not ‘hunt’ for the perpetrators of the theft, as alleged, nor did I give any instructions for this to take place,” he wrote.<\/p>\n Ramaphosa said that $580 000 stashed beneath the cushions was payment made by a Sudanese citizen who had bought buffaloes.<\/p>\n Before the sale, the farm’s manager and Ramaphosa had discussed disposing of buffaloes that were “substandard” and a “financial drain” due to high veterinary and feeding costs, he wrote.<\/p>\n Staff at the farm initially locked the money in an office safe, Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n But the lodge manager then decided that the “safest place” to store it would be under the cushions of a sofa inside Ramaphosa’s residence at the farm, he said.<\/p>\n Re-election bid<\/strong><\/p>\n Ramaphosa, a 70-year-old former trade union boss who made a fortune in business in post-apartheid South Africa, has two farms.<\/p>\n In his submission, he described his passion for cattle – something that led him in 2017 to write a book called “Cattle of the Ages.”<\/p>\n Ramaphosa came to power in 2018 on a promise to root out graft after the corruption-stained era of his boss, Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n He faces elections on December 16 in his bid for a second term as president of the deeply-factionalised ANC.<\/p>\n That position, as head of the dominant party in parliament, is also key to his survival as national president.<\/p>\n Ramaphosa is facing a challenge from Zweli Mkhize, 66, an ex-health minister who resigned from government last year amid graft allegations.<\/p>\n The special panel was set up in September following a clamour by the opposition.<\/p>\n It was tasked with ascertaining whether there was sufficient evidence to show that the president committed a serious violation of the constitution or the law or a serious misconduct.<\/p>\n Lawmakers will examine the report’s findings in a one-day sitting on December 6, and adopt a resolution, “through a simple majority vote, whether a further action by the House is necessary or not,” said National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.<\/p>\n If so, the next step could be a vote to remove the president, which to be successful would require approval by at least two-thirds of the seats in the assembly.<\/p>\n Mapisa-Nqakula described the handover of the report as “one of the indicative milestones in South Africa’s maturing constitutional democracy.”<\/p>\n It should be published within 24 hours, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has told a probe into a burglary scandal enmeshing him that $580 000 in cash stolen from beneath sofa cushions at his ranch came from a cattle buyer, according to leaked documents on Wednesday. The sum is part of what the media has reported as a cash haul of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[419,1142,12451,8252,8392,426,2975,3697,648,13414],"class_list":["post-158340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-cyril","tag-denies","tag-farmgate","tag-panel","tag-phala","tag-ramaphosa","tag-release","tag-report","tag-scandal","tag-wrongdoing"],"yoast_head":"\n!function(e,t,r){let n;if(e.getElementById(r))return;const a=e.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];n=e.createElement(“script”),n.id=r,n.defer=!0,n.src=”https:\/\/playback.oovvuu.media\/player\/v1.js”,a.parentNode.insertBefore(n,a)}(document,0,”oovvuu-player-sdk”);<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n