Johannesburg - Pressure is mounting on President Cyril Ramaphosa following Friday morning’s release of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report which found that he had deliberately “misled” parliament over R500 000 donation from Bosasa with the Democratic Alliance now calling for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee to consider the report’s findings.
DA Leader Mmusi Maimane says that the committee should consider Mkhwebane report, its findings and how to ensure that Ramaphosa and “any other players” were held to account.
Mkhwebane’s report revealed that Ramaphosa, in “deliberately misleading” parliament when responding to a question around a R500 000 donation towards his CR17 ANC presidential campaign ahead of the party’s 54th conference in Nasrec in 2017, had acted inconsistently with his office as deputy president.
At the time, Ramaphosa said that the payment had formed part of his son Andile’s contract with Bosasa whom he was in business with before later on indicating to then Speaker Baleka Mbete that the donation had in fact been towards his ANC presidential campaign.
“The Public Protector has today found that President Ramaphosa did in fact deliberately misled Parliament in relation to this suspicious R500 000 “donation”. Put simply, Ramaphosa took dodgy money from Bosasa and lied to Parliament and to the people of South Africa about it.
“In addition to this, the Public Protector found that at the time when this 'donation' was received, Ramaphosa was still Deputy President. Therefore, as a Member of Parliament he was duty bound to disclose this donation and failed to do so in contravention of the Executive Ethics Code,” Maimane said.
He added that while viewing Ramaphosa’s declaration of interests at the Union Buildings, in April, the R500 000 donation “nor the conflict of interest between himself, his son, and Bosasa” had been declared.
“The Public Protector also found serious financial irregularities and “prima facie evidence of money laundering” to which she has tasked the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Adv Shamila Batohi to investigate further.
“Lastly, the Public Protector has given the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, 30 days to demand that President Ramaphosa make public all donations to his CR17 campaign as he was Deputy President of the country at the time,” said Maimane.
He added that Mkhwebane report had finally shattered the myth of a “good ANC” and a “bad ANC” claiming that there was only one ANC, “corrupt to the core and taking South Africa backwards”.