Ramaphosa ‘determined to keep mum on funds’
Information ‘is in the public domain’
President Cyril Ramaphosa is not about to spill the beans on which ANC leaders siphoned state funds to prop up their preferred presidential candidates in the lead up to the party’s elective conference in 2017.
Last week, Parliament’s finance watchdog Scopa sent Ramaphosa eight detailed questions regarding an audio clip in which the president says State Security Agency (SSA) monies, among others, were funnelled to bids of some in the governing party to ascend to its helm in the run up to the organisation’s 2017 elective conference.
Ramaphosa has until Thursday to answer the questions.
Sunday World has learnt that Ramaphosa is not about to lift the lid on who funnelled funds from the SSA to run their presidential bids in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
Those in the president’s inner circle said, in his reply, Ramaphosa is set to say his statement in the leaked audio was based on information that was already in the public domain.
A source close to Ramaphosa said the funnelling of state resources from SSA for the ANC 2017 conference featured prominently in the testimony of the agency’s former acting director-general, Loyiso Jafta, at the state capture commission.
In January last year, Jafta told the commission that there were monies that left the agency to fund factional battles within the ANC, especially in the runup to the Nasrec conference.
“This (what Ramaphosa said in the audio) has been spoken with authority in the public arena. All of this was said whether factually or not. The biggest issue here is that there was a leak,” the source said.
Another source close to Ramaphosa said the president’s argument is that there are leaders in the ANC and in the government who have spoken publicly about state funds being used to fund ANC activities. “He is going to respond by Tuesday and he will tell the committee that he was referring to what is in the public domain,” the source said.
However, DA MP Benedicta Maria van Minnen, who serves on Scopa, warned Ramaphosa might be forced to come to Parliament if he doesn’t answer the detailed questions. “Then (in the event he doesn’t answer detailed questions) we (will) invite him to appear in front of Scopa. If he doesn’t arrive the opposition parties will push to summon him,” she said.
EFF MP Veronica Mente, who also sits on Scopa, echoed Van Minnen’s sentiments, saying if Ramaphosa does not answer their questions, the next step, according parliament rules, will be summon him.
Presidency spokesperson Tyrone Seale said Ramaphosa will “engage Scopa timeously”.
In the letter to Ramaphosa, Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa told the president that, depending on his responses, the committee will consider whether it will be necessary to invite him to provide additional records or to appear before it to answer further questions.
Some of the eight questions Ramaphosa is requested to answer include details relating “to when, to whom, and in what context the statements of the president were made and any information that he may have which relates to the alleged misuse of public funds for ANC election campaigns.
Scopa also seeks information on whether there were any instructions to or from any ministers, accounting officers or any other officials or persons to release public funds or to facilitate the release of public funds for party political purposes and whether relevant ministers or accounting officers “were made aware of, or otherwise had knowledge of, any unauthorised spending in the event that such instructions to channel funds were done via someone other than themselves”.
Outgoing head of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate Hermione Cronje has also been investigating funds stolen from the SSA to prop up the campaigns of ANC leaders.