Cyril set to sell more buffalo as farm row swirls

In the midst of a political firestorm around whether or not President Cyril Ramaphosa properly reported the theft of money from the sale of game, his Phala Phala farm has put up at least 13 African buffaloes for auction.

In June, former spy chief Arthur Fraser laid charges with the police against the president, alleging that the 2020 theft of more than $4 million hidden inside furniture at the property hadn’t been properly reported.

News24 reported on Wednesday

that burglars took only $600 000 in cash, the proceeds from the sale of a single buffalo to a Dubai-based individual, and the money had been stored in a cupboard. The website didn’t say where it got the information.

Ramaphosa has faced demands from opposition parties, civil society, and the nation’s graft ombudsman to explain what happened. Parliament said last week it will appoint an independent panel that will recommend whether or not to initiate a process to impeach the president.

He has meanwhile responded to questions from the public protector’s office about the incident, but the answers haven’t been made public.

Speculation has swirled that he may have breached tax rules and foreign exchange regulations.

Catalogues on the website of auction house Wildswinkel, which means game shop in Afrikaans, show Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala will have 12 lots on offer at a sale that starts on 31 August, and 18 lots at the 3 September annual live sale of Stud Game Breeders at the Zebula Golf Estate in Limpopo. Those lots include the buffaloes, Ankole cattle, a rare long-horn Ugandan breed, and sable antelope.

Phala Phala is part of the six-member consortium Stud Game Breeders, which includes Nyumbu Wildlife owned by Norman Adami, the former chairman of SABMiller’s local unit. –