Ramaphosa to meet Public Protector over Bosasa payment
29 January 2019
President Cyril Ramaphosa would be meeting with Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in Pretoria on Tuesday to discuss a controversial payment of R500 000 that was made towards Ramaphosa's election campaign by state capture-implicated Bosasa.
Spokesperson for the Presidency, Khusela Diko, told News24 on Tuesday that Ramaphosa wanted to address a complaint that he had deliberately deceived Parliament about the payment.
Mkhwebane last week confirmed that she would investigate whether Ramaphosa lied about a campaign donation received from Bosasa, now known as African Global Operations.
Mkhwebane's decision comes after DA leader Mmusi Maimane and EFF leader Julius Malema on several occasions said that Ramaphosa lied to Parliament about the money his ANC presidential campaign received from Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson.
Bosasa has received billions of rands in government contracts over the past decade and has been implicated in alleged corruption.Its alleged dubious financial transactions are currently being laid bare before the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture, where former chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi testified that the company paid bribes to many high-ranking public officials.
Agrizzi claimed top government officials, the Hawks, the National Prosecuting Authority, and journalists, among others, benefited from its corrupt operations.
Ramaphosa initially told the National Assembly that his son Andile had received money from the company for services rendered in terms of a consultancy contract. The Presidency later corrected that reply in a letter to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete.
He said the R500 000 payment in question was actually a donation that had been made to his ANC presidential campaign, of which he had previously been unaware.Malema last week threatened to turn the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February into a question-and-answer session for the president, should the he not come clean about his dealings with Bosasa before then.
According to Diko, Ramaphosa requested the meeting to set the record straight and to address any complaints that he had deliberately deceived Parliament and that there was an improper relationship between him and Bosasa.
