PHALA PHALA DIVIDES ANC
Ramaphosa offers little resistance as presidential hopeful Dlamini Zuma and stalwart Yengeni lead calls for him to step down
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm robbery has continued to sow divisions within the ANC’s national executive committee, with some members calling for him to step down and others defending him.
This unfolded during a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting that ended at Nasrec yesterday, according to insiders.
The party is preparing for its 55th national elective conference on December 16 to 20, where Ramaphosa is seeking a second term as ANC president.
According to sources at the meeting, the ones to fire the first salvos were presidential contender Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and NEC member Tony Yengeni, who both called for the president to step down.
Ramaphosa had attempted to explain the matter to the NEC on the first day of the gathering. The attack on him was met with little resistance considering that he is a sitting president.
However, his close allies Dr Naledi Pandor and Mondli Gungubele came to his rescue and defended him.
Ramaphosa is accused of concealing a crime at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo relating to the alleged theft of a large amount of money stolen from the property in February 2020.
Former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a charge at Rosebank police station in Johannesburg accusing Ramaphosa of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act after an undisclosed amount of US dollars was removed from the farm.
Ramaphosa reportedly refused to step down, denying there was any criminal case that would merit a finding against him, and arguing he had been a game farmer for years and all the transactions were legitimate.
According to the insiders, Ramaphosa revealed for the first time that about $480000 (about R8.28 million) was stolen instead of the $4m Fraser reported. He also said the money was tax compliant, and that he had given names of those who had bought the cattle to the authorities. However, those who questioned him during the meeting wanted to know why he had not reported the matter to the authorities. Recently, his predecessors broke with long-standing ANC tradition and publicly assaulted his presidency and leadership, in what appears to be a sign the tide may have turned against him.
Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki laid into Ramaphosa over a litany of issues, with the former accusing Ramaphosa of corruption, treason, and selling the Constitution to “greedy friends”.
Political analyst and public administration lecturer at the University of Mpumalanga Dr John Molepo said most of the NEC members could not attack Ramaphosa because they were “scared” of him. “Most of the NEC members are embroiled in issues of bread and butter, and they know that Ramaphosa still has state apparatus.
“As much as they can express themselves, they are too scared to push, because they would not know what Ramaphosa would do. They would obviously be pushed away by the president in terms of resources,” Molepo said.
He said that those who did not support Dlamini Zuma wanted to signal that her presidency bid might not succeed.
ANC veteran Carl Niehaus staged a picket outside Nasrec on the last day of the conference, holding a placard that read “Ramaphosa must go”.
Niehaus, who told Independent Media he had been receiving death threats since he called out Ramaphosa, said he hoped for the NEC to get Ramaphosa to step down.
“Anything less than the ANC NEC meeting deciding that Ramaphosa must step down would be inadequate.
“Ramaphosa has a serious prima facie case to answer,” Niehaus said.
In his closing remarks, Ramaphosa did not mention the Phala Phala matter or take questions from journalists.
Instead, he hailed the meeting as a success as the members had spoken on substantial matters, paving the way for the elective conference.
“We have resolved that substantive issues will be discussed at our conference in the coming weeks. A number of branches will continue discussions on these issues before the national conference takes place including organisational renewal, constitutional amendments, the ANC’s strategies and technical and the programme of transformation.”
DESPITE the ANC’s Integrity Commission (IC) distancing itself from a “leaked” progress report into the Phala Phala scandal, some senior party officials have expressed anger over the contents of the document.
In a statement released on Friday, the commission claimed the report that was widely circulated on social media without a stamp of approval from chairperson George Mashamba was baseless and lacking in authority.
The commission further accused those who leaked the report of attempting to put it in disarray.
Although the commission denied leaking the document, it has not denied its contents, which state that President Cyril Ramaphosa refused to volunteer any information to the commission about his Phala Phala dealings.
It said he was ordered by Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka not to say anything further about the matter as it was under investigation.
Ramaphosa is accused of hiding millions of undeclared foreign currency at his Limpopo farm.
The statement rejecting the leaked document read in part: “The ANC IC rejects in the strongest terms possible that it has released either to the National Executive Committee (NEC) through the secretary-general’s office or to the public any report on Phala Phala.
“Whatever report that is circulating is baseless and has no authority or stamp of approval from the Integrity
Commission.”
The leaked report had found that the Phala Phala saga had put the ANC into disrepute but failed to apportion blame on any particular individual.
“Given that we have not been able to hear from Cde President, we are
unable to determine the cause of what has brought the ANC into disrepute. It could be that it is the actions of individuals on Cde President’s farm that has brought the ANC into disrepute.
“At this stage it is not possible to
determine individuals’ responsibilities in bringing the ANC into disrepute. The IC therefore recommends that the president takes the NEC into his confidence and the NEC takes the people of South Africa into its confidence on a matter which has brought the ANC into disrepute,” reads the report.
However, ANC veteran Carl Niehaus accused the commission of reneging on its mandate, which was to determine whether or not Ramaphosa had put the party into disrepute.
“In the past we have seen the Integrity Commission being used and abused for factional political purposes, targeting certain members of the ANC who are not supporters of President Ramaphosa and his mafia-like acolytes around him.
“But today, when they have to deal with a very serious matter with detailed allegations of a criminal kind, detailed allegations about moneylaundering, about the abduction and torture of people… abusing the SAPS, abusing the taxpayers’ money, not paying tax on those illicit dollars, not having declared the foreign currency to the South African Reserve Bank,” said Niehaus.
He added that he found it strange that Ramaphosa’s refusal to provide answers could be used as an excuse to absolve him.
An NEC member who was part of the meeting said ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo demanded the report on the scandal, but to no avail.
“It’s very bizarre that the president can’t even put us into his confidence. This is a serious matter that has to be put under scrutiny. How the commission doesn’t see that is confusing,” said an insider.
It was not clear if the commission presented its update to the NEC.