Close. Cyril Ramaphosa (Foto: Parliament/X)
ActionSA will file criminal charges against pres. Cyril Ramaphosa is lying after new allegations about the amount of money stolen from his Phala Phala farm in 2020.
The party says the complaint will be lodged at the Bela-Bela police station in Limpopo on Wednesday. This follows after reports apparently indicate that at least R15 million was stolen – and not the previously reported R10 million or $580 000, which at the time amounted to around R8.75 million.
According to ActionSA, the complaint will include, among other things, an alleged violation of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, because Ramaphosa allegedly did not disclose the amount that was stolen correctly. The party also wants to file charges of perjury and fraud over what it describes as a false statement about the exact amount.
Michael Beaumont, ActionSA’s national chairman, says Phala Phala is back in the spotlight after the Constitutional Court’s ruling last week and because the ANC no longer has a majority in parliament.
“We will continue to pursue accountability through all available constitutional mechanisms to ensure that no one, including the president, is above the law,” says Beaumont.
The filing of the complaint will be led by Beaumont, Lerato Ngobeni, ActionSA’s chief whip in parliament, and Victor Mothemela, the party’s Limpopo chairman.
Questions about Opod investigation remain unanswered
Meanwhile, the party also has Ramaphosa and Prof. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia accused of failing to respond in time to written parliamentary questions about the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Opod) Phala Phala investigation. Among other things, ActionSA wanted to know what steps, if any, resulted from the Opod investigation of October 2023.
Beaumont says that after a long legal battle, ActionSA succeeded in obtaining the Opod report on Phala Phala and making it public. According to him, the report contains serious findings against the presidential protection unit and Dr. Bhekani Chauke, the president’s special envoy to Africa.
The statement refers, among other things, to findings that Maj. Gen. Wally Rhoode, head of the Presidential Protection Unit, and Const. HH Rekhoto allegedly refused to participate in the Opod investigation, was involved in an illegal investigation without a file being opened, and falsified documents to have the investigation funded by the South African Police Service.
“The fact that the president and Cachalia missed both of these deadlines the day after he wrapped himself in the rule of law in his speech to the country simply shows the insincerity of his speech,” says Beaumont.
According to Beaumont, Ramaphosa has “never acted openly and transparently” about the Opod investigation. He claims that the actions taken in Ramaphosa’s name probably took place with the president’s “tacit or express approval”.
“This is why no action has been taken in almost three years in relation to the Opod investigation,” says Beaumont.
ActionSA says it will write to the speaker of the national assembly and request that her office hold Ramaphosa and Cachalia accountable for their failure to respond to the parliamentary questions.
“The simple truth is that ActionSA has not received any answers to these questions, because the president and his acting minister of police have no answers about what consequences resulted from the Opod investigation into Phala Phala,” says Beaumont.
“ActionSA will pursue this answer until it is officially given, so that the South African public and the prosecution committee can get these facts.”