EFF statement on the use of R12 million in taxpayers’ money on the cover-up of Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm scandal

28 June 2022

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is not shocked by the recent revelations, that R2 million a month, over a period of six-months, was used to trace the laundered money which was stolen at Cyril Ramaphosa's farm. Through the use of Crime Intelligence Funds, and the deployment of members of the elite special task force, Ramaphosa spent a staggering R 12 million on searching, abducting, interrogating, and torturing those he suspected of stealing his laundered money at Phala Phala farm. It is reported that a total of 16 members of the elite special task force were not only deployed to Phala Phala Farm, but to Namibia and Cape Town. These state resources in the form of intelligence personnel, were only withdrawn after a senior Police General began to question the massive expenditure which could not be accounted for.

Alarmingly, even South African Police Services (SAPS) were misused and mislead to be part of Ramaphosa's criminal activity. This was done through opening of non-existing cases which led the police into thinking they were tracking drug traffickers in the City of Cape Town, only to realise that they were part and parcel of searching for Ramaphosa's illicit money upon apprehending the suspects.

All of this means that on top of the fact that Ramaphosa's money laundering and tax evasion is active theft from the taxpayer, taxpayers' money and State resources were further used and stolen to recover the illicit funds.

Ramaphosa used State Machinery to conduct his crimes of abduction, kidnapping, forced detention, and concealing of a crime.

As things stand, Ramaphosa has confirmed the theft of millions of foreign currency on his property and confirmed that he reported it to his Presidential Protection Services (PPS), who are implicated in the illegal detention and interrogation of suspects.

He has not denied any of the allegations against him, including the torturing of suspects on his properties, and the fact that he did not declare the millions of foreign currency to the South African Revenue Services (SARS), South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).

Ramaphosa has also blatantly refused to account to the public, by avoiding direct questions by the media and more recently denying to answer questions posed to him by Members of Parliament. Instead of living up to the ticket of accountability and transparency, he campaigned on, he has chosen to relegate public accountability to a secondary issue and presented himself to his factional and partisan so-called integrity commission.

Ramaphosa has chosen to go and be a groupie and lapdog of the G7, where he makes no valuable contribution and receives instructions to destroy the South African coal industry and privatise State-Owned Enterprises.

Ramaphosa is not doing anything at the gathering of the G7, but is simply hiding under the skirt of global imperialists, avoiding the mess he has left South Africa in. All self-respecting South Africans, journalists, and members of civil society must be unrelenting in calling for public accountability for the cover-up of Phala Phala Farm, which involves State Security and Law Enforcement Agencies. The EFF will send a parliamentary question to the Minister of Police in relation to the allegations and if confirmed, the Ramaphosa must repay the taxpayers' money.

It is more disturbing that the law enforcement agencies that Ramaphosa continues to ask South Africans to wait for before he can account, are now positively confirmed to have been involved in the cover-up.

Ramaphosa's insistence on South Africans to wait for these institutions to conduct these investigations is therefore suspicious, because any meaningful investigation into this scandal, will likely implicate law enforcement agencies.
We, therefore, reject his and Former President Mbeki's pleas for us to wait for such investigations, and reiterate our call for Ramaphosa to vacate the Office of the Presidency as he has put it into disrepute and broken his oath of office.

Whenever Ramaphosa takes public platform after his return from hiding in Europe, he must be made to account for laundering money, evading tax, abduction, torture of people, and the use of State Machinery to cover up these crimes.

Issued by Sinawo Thambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 28 June 2022