By Ebi Kesiena
South Africa’s corruption watchdog on Friday cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa of allegations that he broke executive ethics in a farm cash scandal that spawned into one of the biggest storms of his career.
Heritage Times HT recalls that in June last year, the scandal erupted when the country’s former spy boss filed a complaint with the police alleging that Ramaphosa had concealed the 2020 theft of a huge haul of foreign currency from his Phala Phala farm.
Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka addressing reporters in Pretoria on Friday, noted that the investigation by the public protector, found that Ramaphosa’s handling of the case was not in violation of the constitution.
“Accumulated against the standard imposed by the executive ethics code it is found that there is no basis upon which to conclude that the president contravened the relevant clauses of the law, including the period following the alleged theft of US dollars”, Gcaleka noted.
The scandal raised concerns that President Ramaphosa may need to quit as president and step aside as leader of the governing African National Congress if found guilty of bringing the organization into disrepute.
Ramaphosa has always denied any wrongdoing.
The ANC is yet to make public the findings of its own ethics committee’s probe on the matter, while opposition parties have questioned whether Ramaphosa violated exchange-control and tax laws.
However, South Africa’s revenue authority found in March, that Ramaphosa and the entities that run his cattle business are tax compliant. The central bank is still probing whether he violated foreign-exchange control laws.
