THE Office of the Public Protector has cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in a preliminary report on the Phala Phala farm robbery scandal.
The report was leaked to various media houses on Saturday morning.
While the report exonerates Ramaphosa, the Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka said the Head of the Presidential Protection Unit to whom the president reported the crime acted improperly by investigating the case directly instead of reporting it to the police.
In a media statement on Saturday, Gcaleka confirmed that the report was delivered to the affected and implicated persons in the Phala-Phala farm investigation.
She said complainants and all implicated persons had 10 days to make representations to the Public Protector on the draft report.
“The notice encloses the preliminary findings of the Public Protector and provides recipients with an opportunity to respond to the Public Protector’s preliminary findings. The affected and implicated persons have been afforded 10(TEN) calendar days to make representations to the Public Protector,” said the Public Protector’s Office.
“The notice remains prohibited for public consumption under section 7(2) of the Public Protector Act which prohibits the disclosure, by any person, of the contents of any document or record of any evidence given before the Public Protector or Deputy Public Protector during an investigation. Once the affected and implicated persons have submitted representations to the Public Protector, such representations will be considered and a final report will be produced and published in terms of section 8(1) of the Public Protector Act read with section 182(1)(b) of the Constitution.”
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told the media on Saturday that the president received the preliminary report, details of which were leaked to media.
“We note the report. As stated before, we reiterate that the president did not participate in any wrongdoing, nor did he violate the oath of his office,” Magwenya announced.
In a scathing media statement, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) slammed Gcaleka, saying her preliminary findings were “irrational” and “nonsensical”.
“Gcaleka deliberately utilises the scapegoat of Cyril Ramaphosa and accredits the misuse of South African Police Services (Saps) resources to General Wally Rhoode, as if he has the ability to operate outside of the directives of his principle with regards to conducting a rogue investigation to recover the money stolen at Phala Phala farm,” the party said in a statement.
“It is not feasible that Rhoode would conduct a full-on investigation into the matter, without the direct oversight of the president himself. Secondly, Rhoode is not a law enforcement agency, wherein one can report a crime, and that results in a legitimate case being opened with SAPS. The claim therefore that Ramaphosa reported the theft simply because he informed a lone police official in his police detail, is ridiculous, to say the least.”
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