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Investigation Report on South Africa’s President Farmgate Scandal “confusing”: Churches

President Cyril Ramaphosa. Credit: cogta.gov.za

The investigation report on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farmgate scandal is “confusing” and leaves many questions unanswered, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has said. 

In a Monday, August 21 statement, SACC makes reference a media release of the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB), and highlight gaps in the latest report about the Phala Phala game farm scandal.

“The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has found the media release of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) on its investigation into the Phala Phala matter confusing and inspiring more questions than answers, as several points remained unclear at its conclusion,” representatives of churches in South Africa, who include those drawn from the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) say.

They provide a background to their faulting of the SARB report, saying, “In its media release dated 21 August 2023, the SARB concluded that, ‘… there was no perfected transaction and thus the SARB cannot conclude that there was any contravention of the Exchange Control Regulations (the applicable Regulation is Regulation 6(1)) by Ntaba Nyoni Estates CC (the entity involved) or for that matter by the President.’”

“The release also stated that, ‘Due to legislative requirements and constraints which apply to the SARB, the report by the SARB into this matter is a private internal report and will not be made available to the public,’” officials of the South African church entity note.

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In the light of the cited SARB conclusions, the church leaders say, “The SACC, along with the South African public, is therefore left to piece together what it can from the select findings that were shared, which, frankly, offer very little on the investigation that was conducted for it to ensure accountability for the foreign currency found at Phala Phala farm owned by President Cyril Ramaphosa.”

They call for clarity in what was examined during the investigation, saying, “As the SACC, we do believe it would be important to make it clear what exactly the SARB investigated, beyond stipulating that the investigation was conducted in two phases.”  

In early 2020, cash between US$500,000 and US$5m was reportedly stolen from President Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game ranch in South Africa’s Limpopo province. In what has been termed the “Farmgate scandal”, neither was the alleged theft reported to police, nor had the cash been declared in conformity with South Africa’s money laundering regulations, The Guardian reported

Instead, The Guardian further reported, “a presidential bodyguard was tasked with tracking down the money and then possibly paying off the culprits. Local media call the scandal Farmgate.”

In their August 21 statement, SACC officials highlight what they term “expectations” of South Africans regarding the Farmgate scandal.

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“The expectation of the South African public is that the SARB would investigate the legality of any individual, let alone the President, alleged to have had as much foreign currency in cash; and if those funds were declared to determine their origin and intended purpose, with the required proof to confirm this,” the church leaders say.

They say that “the media release does not clarify this.”

“This has left us asking whether the investigation of the SARB rather sought to determine if the transaction to purchase wildlife from the President’s farm had actually been concluded, which we do not believe to ever have been the question the public wanted answered,” SACC officials say.

The church leaders in South Africa call upon SARB to “offer more insight into its investigation findings by sharing its report, in order to demonstrate that every citizen of the country is held to the same banking laws and regulations - regardless of the citizen’s standing in society.”

“If the report cannot be immediately made public, we should look forward to when it will be presented to Parliament, where the SARB normally reports,” SACC officials say.

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Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.