Kgalalelo Setlhare and Phuti Mosomane
Economic Freedom Fighters spokesperson Sinawo Thambo said the party rejects with contempt the acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka’s report as nonsensical and illogical regarding the activities of President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Phala Phala farm saga.
“The President of South Africa, stands accused of money laundering, kidnapping, bribery and misuse of state resources to pursue the recovery of millions of US Dollars, which he kept illicitly at his Phala Phala Farm. As a result, he is palpably culpable for violating the Executive Members Ethics Act (EMEA), as he actively participated in work to generate profit as a member of Cabinet,” the EFF said.
This might be the beginning of a race to court as political parties want answers as to how the Public Protector cleared President Ramaphosa of all the allegations surrounding the theft of millions of US Dollars stashed in furniture in his Phala Phala game farm.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said the Democratic Alliance will be consulting their lawyers to take the report on review as they believe it may contain several misinterpretations of relevant pieces of legislation.
Steenhuisen said it was nothing more than a whitewash of the entire sordid Phala Phala scandal.
“Given that Adv Gcaleka is vying for the top job within the Office of the Public Protector, her report today reads more like a job interview than a concluded investigation.
“By burying the merits of this investigation in legal jargon and semantics, and contorting the law in her interpretation of both the Executive Members Ethics Act and the Constitution, she has attempted to paint President Cyril Ramaphosa as nothing more than an innocent bystander to the Phala Phala scandal, oblivious to the workings of the Presidential Protection Services, his responsibilities as the head of South Africa’s national executive, and his duty as the first citizen of the nation,” Steenhuisen said.
He said the report could only be described as a pro-Ramaphosa public relations exercise.
“It is also gravely concerning to note the discrepancies between the Nkandla Report, whose interpretation of similar laws found that former President Jacob Zuma was severely compromised as President of the Republic, yet Cyril Ramaphosa is seemingly assessed by different standards,” he said.
The DA said the most worrying in this flawed report is the insidious weakening of South Africa’s institutions as the very last bastions of accountability in our young democracy.
On the other hand the ANC said it has noted the responses by various opposition parties and the observation is that they fail to consider the actual facts on issues raised by the Public Protector to the extent that allegations made regarding the violation of the Executive Ethics Code, were unsubstantiated.
“In so doing, they sought to manufacture facts that correspond to their concocted allegations against the President with regards unsubstantiated accusation on violating the Executive Ethics Code,” ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula.
Mbalual welcomed the Public Protector’s Report and said it re-affirms the fact that Ramaphosa did not violate the Executive Ethics Code in all responses made following the criminal incidents on the Phala Phala Farm.
INSIDE POLITICS
