Ramaphosa’s refusal to disclose his son’s Bosasa earnings to Parliament shows he has something serious to hide

8 March 2019

In today’s Oral Question Session in Parliament, I asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to come clean and disclose the fee Bosasa paid his son, Andile Ramaphosa, for “strategic and financial advisory services” as it appears in the contract agreement between Andile and Bosasa - a contract which the President said he had personally seen.

The President flatly refused to answer my question, stating that the Public Protector is considering the matter. This is disingenuous and simply not true. The Public Protector is investigating whether President Ramaphosa misled Parliament and violated the Executive Ethics Code - not what his son earned from Bosasa.

The President is accountable to Parliament, not the Public Protector, and his refusal to disclose this information shows there’s something serious to hide between the Ramaphosa’s and Bosasa.

It is no surprise that the President was hastily protected by the Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete. It cannot be that the President is allowed to get away with not accounting to Parliament, as was the case under the Zuma Presidency. We have moved from a parliamentary culture of protecting uBaba ka Duduzane, to now protecting uBaba ka Andile.

It is clear that President Ramaphosa is compromised when it comes to Bosasa. He received a R500 000 “donation” from a company that has been paying the ANC bribes to secure government tenders for almost two decades. This smacks of “corruption 101”. Bosasa gives money to ANC officials, including President Ramaphosa himself, and in turn the ANC in government hands lucrative tenders to Bosasa worth billions of rands. It is this corrupt relationship that also leads to individuals like the President’s son, Andile Ramaphosa, striking multimillion-rand business deals with Bosasa.

Ramaphosa and his son are not the only one to have benefited from Bosasa. A long list of ANC ministers and other cadres of the party have received extensive security upgrades like CCTV cameras, alarm systems and electric fencing free of charge from Bosasa. This list includes Gwede Mantashe, Nomvula Mokonyane, Thabang Makwetla, Dudu Myeni, Linda Mti, Mbulelo Gingcana and Vincent Smith. The company also allegedly funded former President Jacob Zuma’s birthday bashes in 2015 and 2016, to the estimated value of R3.5 million.

The people of South Africa must know that this system of corruption has become part of the very fabric of the ANC – regardless of who leads the organisation. It is the entire ANC that is corrupt, not just Jacob Zuma, the Guptas and his associates. It operates as a system of corruption that locks out the poor and the unemployed – to the benefit of the politically connected few.

Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 8 March 2019