President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala scandal did not disappear after he was cleared of wrongdoing.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Farmgate scandal is still a kicking buffalo. The African Transformation Movement (ATM) wants to have the courts set aside acting Public Protector Khaleka Gcaleka’s report on the Phala Phala matter.
Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia, spokesperson Zama Ntshona said the party took issue with the “fact” that the president has a conflict of interest.
“When you look at the evidence that has been presented before her, either by the African Transformation Movement, other political parties or even the Section 89 independent panel, all the evidence points to the fact that the president on Section 96 (2) has embarked on other paid work,” he said.
The matter relates to the theft of US dollars from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in February 2020. The matter was cleared in a report the PP released in June.
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Phala Phala and evidence
In her report, Gcaleka said the evidence before her did not support the allegation that the president undertook paid work outside his office and had thus breached the relevant provisions of the constitution and the Executive Ethics Code.
But the ATM believed this was a foregone conclusion from the onset of the PP’s investigation.
“We believe that the evidence and the affidavit that has been given by the president should have been an easy conclusion to draw that the president has actually violated the Executive Members Ethics Act,” said Ntshona.
Appearing at the Pretoria High Court, ATM president Vuyo Zungula asked to find that Gcaleka’s findings in her June report were inconsistent with the constitution and invalid, and therefore set it aside.
