PHUTI MOSOMANE
THE Committee for Section 194 Enquiry into Public Protector’s fitness to hold office heard testimony from the Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane about the CR17 and Bosasa investigation, and report.
The report and investigation by the office of the Public Protector refers to President Cyril Ramaphosa as the then Deputy President of the ANC’s 2017 donor funding campaign in his bid to become ANC President.
The Public Protector found that there was “prima facie” evidence that CR17 campaign was involved in money-laundering because of the movement of monies into various accounts.
The courts, however, ruled that money-laundering must involve the proceeds of crime and that no evidence existed that this was the case in relation to CR17 donations.
According to Mkhwebane’s affidavit, important players in the South African economy paid millions of rands into the CR17-campaign, raising reasonable suspicion that they were buying influence, so that in turn, several officials and/or functionaries received large amounts of money from those funds, according to MKhwebane.
According to the affidavit, Mkhwebane read out in the hearing, “over and above the showing of how money was moved around, the sealed records revealed as false the version that President Ramaphosa was ignorant of the identity of the donors of the CR17 campaign. We also had evidence which indicated that some of the money collected through the CR17 trust account was transferred to President Ramaphosa Foundation, an account which belongs to him”.
Mkhwebane claimed she was being persecuted by “The Untouchables”, being persons identified in the report. She repeated that Ramaphosa should have declared his CR17 funding to Parliament as a personal benefit.
She told the Committee that the public is listening and wants to know the truth.
“For me, this is a matter of life and death,” said Mkhwebane.
Advocate Dali Mpofu read out minority Constitutional Court judgements in order to argue that the Public Protector was right in her findings in the CR17 and Bosasa report.
He also raised concerns regarding the duration set aside for Mkhwebane’s testimony as too short. The Committee set 15 March to 31 March 2023 aside for this.
Committee Chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi said the Committee will pause its hearings until next Thursday due to other engagements by Mkhwebane, who is due to appear in another matter.
He also indicated that the next part of Mkhwebane’s statement is due next week.
Earlier this week, the committee received the first part – a 255-page affidavit.
INSIDE POLITICS
