The Presidency continued to deny any relationship between Cyril Ramaphosa and Hangwani Maumela in wake of SIU Tembisa hospital investigation.
Images of President Cyril Ramaphosa outside the home of a man linked to the R2 billion looted from Tembisa hospital are not suspicious, says The Presidency.
Photos and a video from 2023 show the president engaging in a friendly photo opportunity in the driveway of Hangwani Maumela’s home.
The exterior of the lavish home was made famous last week as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) confiscated assets as part of their investigation into the misappropriation of state funds.
The interaction fuelled speculation on the connection between Ramaphosa and Maumela, as South Africans continue to fume over the alleged ill-got luxury hidden inside Maumela’s Sandton home.
The SIU revealed last week that Maumela was the head of a syndicate that allegedly siphoned almost R900 million from the Tembisa hospital using fraudulent procurement orders.
Ramaphosa ‘regularly walks’
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, insisted that the encounter was random and that the president did not know the owner of the house.
Magwenya said that Ramaphosa had gone for a walk with his then special advisor, Jomo Sibiya, who is now deputy minister of employment and labour.
Magwenya claimed that the pair were walking the streets of the plush neighbourhood when they happened upon media personality Thabo “Tbo Touch” Molefe and North American religious leader Noel Jones, who asked for photographs.
The president’s spokesperson reiterated that Maumela and Ramaphosa have no relationship and that the images were not proof to the contrary, despite the accused fraudster being the nephew of the president’s first wife.
“The president regularly walks and drives past the house because it’s not far from his home in Hyde Park. He didn’t know it belonged to Maumela,” IOL quoted Magwenya as saying.
Neighbour links ‘imagined’
Social media posts also used aerial photos of the street to suggest that one of Ramaphosa’s former advisors, Bejani Chauke, was Maumela’s neighbour.
“I note the houses associated with my name on various social media platforms. They are indeed beautiful properties. I wish they were mine so I could put them to better use,” Chauke posted on X on Sunday.
“As for the imagined friendships/relationships created for me, the less said about them, the better,” he added.
The Presidency explained that Chauke had left his position as Ramaphosa’s political advisor in February 2023, but had been serving as strategic relations and investment special envoy within the Presidency on a volunteer basis.
NOW READ: PICS: SIU seizes assets – including Lamborghinis – of Tembisa Hospital tender kingpin
