Serious accusations against Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC

ATM parliamentary leader Vuyo Zungula told the Mail & Guardian that Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala money could have been for the ANC.

The Phala Phala scandal, often referred to as Farmgate, is one of the most significant political controversies surrounding President Ramaphosa.

What began as a quiet housebreaking at his private game farm escalated to allegations of money laundering, institutional cover-ups, and abuse of state power.

Ramaphosa maintained that the money, which he said was $580,000 hidden in a couch, was the legitimate proceeds from the sale of buffalo to a Sudanese businessman.

However, the episode raised questions about why the money was hidden in furniture and whether he had declared it.

Questions have also been raised about the source of the money. Ramaphosa said the case came from the legitimate cash sale of buffalo.

He claimed that in December 2019, a Sudanese businessman named Hazim Mustafa visited the Phala Phala farm and agreed to purchase 20 buffalo.

Many critics questioned this version. Political commentator Prince Mashele, for example, said that Ramaphosa’s version is unconvincing.

He said that a more likely scenario was that the cash was part of broader ANC political funding and patronage networks.

This aligns with the views of Zungula, who shared his views about the Phala Phala scandal in a Mail & Guardian podcast interview.

He argued that the $580,000 stashed in a couch at the Phala Phala game farm could have been meant for the ANC rather than the president.

He explained that political parties, especially the ANC, have relationships with other governments and political parties.

Because legislation prevents political parties from receiving funding from international sources, they could fund the ANC through illicit means.

“Because when a president travels outside the country, when they come back, they don’t get searched, so they can easily return with a bag full of dollars,” he said.

ANC getting money from foreign countries is nothing new

This theory is not uncommon. In December 2022, financial journalist Tim Cohen wrote that the ANC had a long history of taking cash from dodgy donors.

He shared details about the ANC’s funding strategy in his Daily Maverick newsletter, After the Bell. Even former President Nelson Mandela was guilty.

“Former President Nelson Mandela was enormously ethical in many aspects of his life, but his Achilles heel was party funding,” Cohen said.

“I was told a story I refused to believe at the time. Mandela met with a head of state in 1990, shortly after his release from prison,” he wrote.

He asked for $10 million in cash, and the request was agreed to immediately. So, Mandela waited around and was eventually asked what he was waiting for.

“Mandela said, somewhat indignantly, for the money,” Cohen wrote. An official had to withdraw $10 million in cash and hand it to Mandela.

The former South African President took the $10 million he received back to South Africa in a briefcase.

Cohen also cited the former Indonesian ambassador, whom Mandela thanked for his country’s “generous donations”.

“Suharto then visited SA in 1997 and was awarded the Order of Good Hope, the country’s highest honour,” Cohen wrote.

By 2010, Cohen wrote, the system of milking foreign governments for cash was firmly established in the ANC.

Cohen speculated that Ramaphosa’s political advisor, Bejani Chauke, illegally brought large sums of US dollars into South Africa from overseas.

Some of that found its way to PhalaPhala, and some of that was put in the couch, and some of that was stolen.