Cape Town – Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa has reportedly said he is willing to testify after he was identified as the source of more than half a million dollars in cash stolen from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in February 2020.
Speaking to Sky News, Mustafa said he would testify to shed light on his $580 000 cash purchase of 20 buffalos from Ramaphosa’s game farm.
When asked how he felt about being ‘the president’s alibi’, Mustafa said he was shocked and questioned why the money wasn’t sent to the bank.
“Once I gave the money, the ownership of the money has been transferred from me to him, and the receipt is my evidence for the payment,” he said.
Mustafa said that he did not know the farm was owned by Ramaphosa until he heard the news.
“If you saw the structure for the farm, it belonged to a trustee, and this trustee I think belonged to his family,” he said.
He has reportedly handed over the evidence to the South African authorities.
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When asked whether or not he would testify if asked, Mustafa said “absolutely”.
“Anything to help justice and to show the truth. I have nothing to hide,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa on Tuesday easily survived a vote in parliament on whether to initiate impeachment proceedings that could have forced him out of office.
After a heated debate, his ruling African National Congress (ANC) party defeated the motion by 214 votes to 148, with two abstentions through open voting.
The “inquiry will therefore not be proceeded with”, declared National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, preventing an impeachment.
ALSO READ | Former spy boss Arthur Fraser accuses Cyril Ramaphosa of ‘kidnapping’, ‘bribing burglars’
The president, who was a wealthy businessman before entering politics, found himself in hot water in June when a controversial ex-spy boss filed a complaint against him to the police.
Arthur Fraser alleged Ramaphosa had concealed the theft of several million dollars from his farm in 2020.
He accused the president of having the burglars kidnapped and bribed into silence instead of reporting the matter to the authorities.
Ramaphosa has not been charged with any crime and has denied wrongdoing.
The findings of the three-person special probe, issued last week, brought forward details that have left South Africa agog.
Ramaphosa acknowledged the theft of $580 000 in cash that was stashed under sofa cushions at his farm — a safer place, his employees said, than the office safe.
He said the money was payment for buffaloes bought by a Sudanese businessman, who recently confirmed the transaction in interviews with British media.
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Picture: Facebook/ Hazim Mustafa Mohamed
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
