JACOB Zuma has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of corruption and treason after he allegedly bribed burglars to keep quiet about a February 2020 robbery at his Phala Phala farm in Bela Bela, Limpopo.
Zuma added that Ramaphosa conducting private business while holding high office in the country is in itself unconstitutional and nothing but corruption.
Zuma was addressing the nation on Saturday in Sandton, Johannesburg.
“Your president is corrupt, yet the busy bodies and the self-appointed anti-corruption crusaders and NGOs are dead silent,” Zuma said in his first reaction over allegations earlier this year that Ramaphosa concealed a multi-million-dollar cash heist at his luxury farmhouse.
“I am assuming that what President Ramaphosa has said about the many dollars under his bed or furniture is true. that he conducts private businesses while serving as president of our country,” said Zuma.
“That on its own is unconstitutional and those who applaud him for doing so commit the most disgusting transgression. Conducting private business while holding the high office of president is nothing but corruption, which is inconsistent with the nature of that office and the constitution.”
“No president should conduct private business while in office. Our country’s problems are too big for President Cyril Ramaphosa to be hustling on the side through Phala Phala Farm sales.”
Zuma said he was also baffled by the ‘total silence’ about Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm scandal.
“It is interesting to observe the silence against the many allegations of criminality against the current president Cyril Ramaphosa by the so-called defenders of democracy and the media,” said Zuma.
“I often wonder what the situation would have been if I was the one accused of having millions of dollars hidden under mattresses. I wonder what would have happened if that was an allegation out of Nkandla.”
He also lambasted Ramaphosa for suspending the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane while she was investigating him.
“To add insult to injury, the Western Cape high court found that the president went further and suspended the public protector for the sole purpose of covering up his Phala Phala corruption. The president is corrupt,” said Zuma.
In September, the Western Cape High Court ruled that Ramaphosa’s decision to suspend Mkhwebane came after she sent him questions about the Phala Phala break-in, was invalid and “improper”.
The court found that “from the objective facts, the decision of [Mkhwebane] to investigate the president and to put 31 questions to him, prompted the president not to wait a day more and to immediately suspend her”.
The Public Protector opened a probe in June over potential breaches of the executive ethics code after Ramaphosa was accused of bribing burglars to keep quiet about a February 2020 heist at his ranch.
It is alleged $4 million in cash was stolen.
The case, which has piled pressure on the president amid heightened tensions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, stems from a police report filed by former national spy boss Arthur Fraser last month.
Fraser alleged that robbers broke into Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in the northeast of the country where they found the cash hidden in furniture.
Ramaphosa hid the robbery from police and the tax authorities, Fraser alleged, accusing the head of state of organising the kidnapping and questioning of the robbers, and then bribing them into silence.
The president has acknowledged the burglary but denies the alleged kidnapping and bribery, saying he reported the burglary to the police.
He has also disputed the amount of money involved and said the cash came from legitimate sales of game from his animal breeding farm.
On the same day, former president Thabo Mbeki said in the run-up to the national conference in December, the ANC should reflect very hard on the allegations hanging over Ramaphosa’s head.
“Our president is under a lot of pressure. I am talking about President Ramaphosa… around this matter of Phala Phala farm. There are criminal investigations going on. Parliament has its own processes. The Reserve Bank has done what it wants to do. What relevance does that all have to the leadership of the ANC that will come out of Nasrec at the end of the year, or is it entirely irrelevant?”
“As comrades know, they have been given 30 days to do that. The 30 days will run out sometime in the month of November. What happens if they say he has got a case to answer? What do we do?” Mbeki asked.
“The leadership of the ANC cannot avoid meeting to discuss that in the light of that, what do we do. Do we say to the president he must step aside, or do we say let it continue through the parliamentary process? What is the impact of that in the public mind?”
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