Cape Town - Senior ANC Lindiwe Sisulu says the Phala Phala scandal is “untenable” and that there has been one cover-up after another in the saga that implicates President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Sisulu, who was speaking on The Press Club podcast, was a notable absentee in the vote and rejection of the adoption of the Section 89 report on the Phala Phala fallout.
A wad of US dollars – which Ramaphosa pegged at $580 000 – was stolen by thieves linked to a Ramaphosa employee at Phala Phala farm.
Former spy boss Arthur Fraser opened a case against Ramaphosa and alleged, among others, a cover-up of the theft; torture and kidnapping of the criminals; money laundering and hush money paid to the thieves.
“I was shocked like everybody else when this (the Phala Phala saga) was revealed,” said Sisulu, who is also Tourism Minister and holds membership to the party’s National Executive Committee and National Working Committee.
“When I was in intelligence, we had come across illicit outflows and inflows of money and we knew this would affect the value of the rand.”
Their discovery gave effect to the establishment of the Financial Intelligence Centre and other measures “in preparation that we’d never experience something like Phala Phala”.
“Several laws have been broken. I must say this about Comrade Cyril: I think his first instinct was to say ‘let me walk away’. It’s the people around him, I believe, who are dependent on his patronage, who said, ‘but Mr President, what about us?’
“We’re sitting with a group of people holding the whole country and its integrity at ransom.”
Sisulu said a prevailing culture in the ANC was that there aren’t people who can tell Ramaphosa the truth “and tell the emperor that he’s naked”.
Sisulu said Ramaphosa should’ve been allowed to resign and the Phala Phala saga thoroughly investigated. “What we’ve done is covered up, creating a situation which is untenable.”
Podcast anchor Professor Sipho Seepe asked her to opine on those who say “better the devil you know” and whether Ramaphosa was a good man.
“I don’t know what the definition of a good man is, but the presidents we’ve had I have looked up to … I didn’t expect that I would be discussing Comrade Cyril with money stashed in Phala Phala. That is not how I associate his position and relationship with society.”
Sisulu said had Fraser not made the revelations, Ramaphosa wouldn’t have fessed up. “That’s the bottom line. I think that’s where we should judge him.”
Sisulu said the ANC was clear about what happened, but there was an “active agenda” to try to cover up that which “is irregular, blatant, wrong in the extreme”.
Sisulu said the incident happened as Luthuli House employees had not been paid for seven months – it could’ve been used to assist poor people.
She said Namibian president Hage Geingob has a “very high moral standard” and wouldn’t have known the truth behind Phala Phala.
On her being absent from the Section 89 voting, she said she and NEC member Dr Zweli Mkhize were “aggrieved” in a recent NEC meeting where, she said, ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe “did not recognise us”.
Sisulu said a decision cooked outside ANC processes saw Mantashe tell MPs to toe the party line.
“It got so heated we were worried about the exchanges between Mkhize and Mantashe.”
She said she addressed a caucus meeting on Tuesday to disagree with Mantashe, but was “hauled down. I could not continue”. Sisulu said the matter was “managed to have a particular outcome”.
Sisulu said she and Mkhize received a message that they don’t vote and she left the building to check the message. She said when she returned, the doors were closed.
She doesn’t regret not voting as she “will not support anything dictatorial”. Asked whether she would’ve voted “Yes” to adopt the report, she said she would’ve repeated what she did in the caucus meeting.
Sisulu said threats to MPs’ jobs over voting in dissent “is a disgrace”. She said the Section 89 report was a “fantastic document”.
She said Parliament should be the last topical issue, and questions should be asked why law-enforcement processes are slow to deal with Phala Phala.
“The hype around Nkandla was almost out of this world. And here we have something out of this world happening and the hype is not at the same level because there are people who are beholden to the president,” Sisulu said.
She said when ANC MP Mervyn Dirks called for Ramaphosa to account, he was thrown out of Parliament. She was referring to his suspension from January this year.