PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday denied the alleged theft of $4 million (R61.8 million) in cash at his Limpopo-based Phala Phala farm in 2020, accusing his detractors of having a political agenda.
Ramaphosa was addressing the closing of the ANC Limpopo Conference, where his close ally Stanley Mathabatha was re-elected as the party’s Limpopo provincial chairperson.
“I have never stolen money from anyone. My integrity as a leader will never allow me to do so,” Ramaphosa told delegates at the conference.
Ramaphosa explained that he was a livestock farmer and the millions allegedly stolen from his farm were proceeds from the sale of game.
He said that some of his sales of game were sometimes in the form of cash payments or transfers.
“I’m in the cattle business and the game business, and through that business – which has been declared in Parliament and all over – I buy and I sell animals. Sometimes people buy these animals… the sales are sometimes through cash and sometimes through transfers,” he said.
“Some of the people who are offshore customers and who are sometimes local, come through and buy animals and some of them come to also hunt on the farm.”
“So this that’s being reported was a clear business transaction of selling animals.”
While Ramaphosa acknowledged the public outcry over the theft at his Limpopo farm, he reiterated that he remained “firmly focused” on rebuilding the economy and the country.
“I want to reaffirm that I was not involved in any criminal conduct and once again I pledge my full cooperation with any form of investigation,” he said.
“Due to the investigation, I would not really be able to engage deeply or further on this matter as we should allow the due process to take place.”
He further said the figure of $4 million reported in the media to have been allegedly stolen was exaggerated and was far lower than what has been bandied about.
Ramaphosa also vowed to continue his fight to root out corruption despite attacks from his political detractors.
“Some of these things clearly have their own political agenda and we are all aware of that, but it will not deter me from fighting corruption because I have never stolen taxpayers’ money,” Ramaphosa said.
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