Cape Town – While acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka has exonerated President Cyril Ramaphosa from any wrongdoing, the investigation conducted by his protection services head Wally Rhoode regarding the Phala Phala burglary, was deemed unauthorised, a report says.
The public protector on Friday absolved Ramaphosa of allegations that he breached executive ethics in a farm cash scandal that spawned into one of the biggest storms of his career.
The scandal erupted in June last year when the country’s former spy boss filed a complaint with the police alleging that Ramaphosa had concealed the 2020 theft of a huge haul of foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm.
An investigation by the public protector found that Ramaphosa’s handling of the case was not in violation of the constitution.
“Aggregated against the standard imposed by the executive ethics code it is found that there is no basis upon which to conclude that the president contravened” the relevant clauses of the law, “including the period following the alleged theft of US dollars”, interim ombudswoman, Kholeka Gcaleka told a news conference in Pretoria.
The public protector’s office is an independent state institution provided for in the constitution and reports on misconduct or malfeasance within the government. But it has no powers to prosecute.
The police is carrying out its own investigation in the farm heist case which raised accusations of money-laundering and corruption by the 70-year-old president.
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Ramaphosa has always denied any wrongdoing.
He said the cash – more than half a million dollars stashed beneath sofa cushions – was payment for buffaloes bought by a Sudanese businessman.
A parliament-sanctioned independent panel said last year that he “may have committed” serious violations and misconduct.
Parliament later decided not to initiate impeachment proceedings that could have forced him out of office.
Ramaphosa, a former union boss who became a business tycoon after apartheid, stepped into the president’s job in February 2018.
He came into office promising a “new dawn” after the scandal-rocked tenure of former president Jacob Zuma.
According to News24, following the burglary at Ramaphosa’s farm, Rhoode conducted an investigation in an unsanctioned manner without reporting to the police commissioner as required.
Gcaleka said that Rhoode’s actions exceeded the boundaries of the presidential protection services, and the tracing and handling of money related to the case were done without proper reporting.
“According to Rhoode’s affidavit, he had reported to the late deputy commissioner of police: crime detection, Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi, and not then police commissioner General Kehla Sitole as he was supposed to,” the report quoted Gcaleka as saying.
She recommended that National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola should take action against Rhoode and other members of the presidential protection service involved in the unauthorised investigation within 60 calendar days.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
Additional reporting by AFP
