President Cyril Ramaphosa responds to questions from members of the NCOP. Picture: PresidencyZA/Twitter
President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the Democratic Alliance (DA) to wait for all investigations into the burglary at his Phala Phala farm to be concluded before reaching its conclusions.
Ramaphosa was on Thursday in the National Council of Provinces in Parliament to answer questions.
After telling the house the government was working hard to get the country off the grey list by the end of the year, the DA asked him how his government would achieve that with the Phala Phala cloud hanging over his head.
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“At one point you said this greylisting is an opportunity for us to get our house in order. But Mr President, you are part of the problem because you accepted dirty dollars that got into this country illegally. How do you, with any credibility, stand here and explain to us how we are going to get out of this greylisting when you are part of the problem?” the DA asked.
Ramaphosa called out the DA for “concluding” the dollars found at his Phala Phala farm were dirty.
“The processes that are undergoing involving a number of agencies and institutions to look at the matter. I think we should wait for that process to be concluded to come to the conclusion that you are alluding to, because I have publicly said I am willing to cooperate and have done so and some of those institutions have even said so,” said Ramaphosa.
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“Let us wait for the whole process to be done with and to be concluded before we reach the conclusion that you are alluding to. I will continue to say there is no dirty dollars and I have said in various statements that this has been a result of a transaction as a farmer that I am, who sold game and that process is being thoroughly looked at and having opened myself to cooperate with those institutions, we should wait until all those institutions come to a conclusion.”
Ramaphosa said South Africa had made “significant” progress to address the issues raised by the Financial Action Task Force.
“Such progress included the passage of two key Acts at the end of December 2022, namely the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act and the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorism and Related Activities Amendment Act,” said Ramaphosa.
“As a result, our agreed Action Plan has now been reduced to eight focus areas. These areas relate largely to the effectiveness of our authorities in implementing the various elements of our anti-money laundering and combating of the financing of terrorism system.”
Meanwhile, the African National Congress says it will request a meeting with former president Thabo Mbeki, who on Thursday wrote a letter criticising, among others, the ruling party’s decision to block a parliamentary investigation into the Phala Phala matter.
“Many among the masses of our people will entertain the suspicion that the Phala Phala matter includes corruption. In that sense this is no different from the Nkandla matter, which, once again, many among our people suspected involved corrupt practice,” wrote Mbeki in a leaked letter.
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“As you know, the 3-person panel appointed by parliament concerning the Phala Phala matter decided that that Comrade President ‘had a case to answer’ with regard to a process of impeachment. What should have followed this is that the National Assembly would have appointed a multi-party committee precisely to investigate the matter of whether the comrade president did indeed have a ‘case to answer’.
“However, we voted to stop the formation of the MPC.”
Mbeki said voting against an investigation into the Phala Phala issue impacted the standing of the ANC with South Africans.
“It is equally without doubt that any wrong position we take with regard to the Phala Phala matter will also in equal measure or more, impact negatively on the standing of the ANC.”
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