Ramaphosa says he’s only met Tembisa Hospital tender kingpin by coincidence
President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that he “encountered” alleged Tembisa Hospital corruption kingpin Hangwani Maumela outside his Sandton home in 2024.
However, he says that this was by pure coincidence and has never had any other encounters with him.
Ramaphosa was responding to questions from MK Party MP Mmabatho Mokoena during an oral session at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday.
Mokoena had pressed him to clarify his relationship with Maumela, who is accused of looting hundreds of millions of rands of public funds through fraudulent tenders at Tembisa Hospital.
Ramaphosa said that he was married to Maumela’s aunt nearly five decades ago, but emphasised that he is “not related to him as such.”
“Now 47 years ago I got married to his father’s sister, his aunt, we divorced 43 years ago and when I said to Honourable [John] Steenhuisen in 2022 when he asked whether I knew him, I said I did not know him because I had never encountered him, I had never seen him and that was gospel truth.”
A resurfaced video taken on September 29, 2023 by DJ Thabo “Tbo Touch” Molefe went viral last week, showing Ramaphosa smiling for a photo with three men outside Maumela’s mansion in Sandhurst, Sandton.
The video shows Ramaphosa with Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Jomo Sibiya, who was at the time a special adviser to the President – DJ Tbo Touch, and Bishop Noel Jones.
Ramaphosa said that the viral photo and video circulating online were taken during one of his regular 6am 10km walks in 2023, where people often stop to greet him.
“During my walks I saw Maumela’s house under construction, and would often ask whose ‘massive house’ it was but never got the information,” he said.
“The street where Maumela’s house is located is one the President often uses when walking or driving to and from his residence,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.
“It’s less than a kilometre from his home, so it’s not unusual to see him in that area.”
“So there was this brouhaha that, yes, I visit his home on a regular basis and so forth… that is not true.”
Ramaphosa encounters Maumela
In 2024, I am walking on that same street and a person comes out of this house and he greets me and as I often meet people, I ask them, who are you?”
“He says, I am Hangwani Maumela and that’s how he introduces himself to me and I say, so you are the man who is putting my name into disrepute and he smiles away, and now I’ve encountered this person, and I walk away and I walk to my home.”
This marks a deviation from earlier remarks by Magwenya, who told journalists on Monday that the president had not met Maumela.
“And then in 2024, on the 26th of December, I am walking with my daughter, who loves walking too, on the same street, and there this young man comes out and he says, ‘Hello, Mr Ramaphosa, my mother is here.’
‘Can you say hello to her?’ and I say, who is she? He says who she is,” added Ramaphosa.
He quipped that he planned to write a book about his walking escapades, since stopping and posing for pictures and videos was causing the rumour mill to go into overdrive.
“So this is how this Maumela fellow then gets into this whole drama because his aunt who is my former wife of 47 years ago, it’s his aunt and he is really not my relative as such,” said the President.
“So I have encountered him, and you can make what you like of it, do I deal with him? No. Do I meet him and sit down with him? No. Do I visit him at his house? No.”
Applauding the SIU investigation
The president said he was appalled by the allegations against Maumela and commended the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for its efforts to recover stolen public funds.
“Am I appalled at the allegations that are being made against him? Yes, I am appalled and as I walk past that house, I know that that house was built with the money as it is alleged, that was not properly acquired, and it is money that should have been spent on the health of our people,” Ramaphosa said.
“So the SIU has taken action, and I applaud that and that is why I say we are making progress. The special investigating unit is reclaiming stolen money, and we must support them and applaud them for the work that they are doing.”
Last Thursday, officers from the SIU, South African Police Service, and Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department conducted a coordinated raid on Maumela’s Sandhurst mansion.
Authorities seized Lamborghini vehicles, luxury art, and other assets following an interim court order to preserve approximately R900 million in assets allegedly linked to irregular payments from Tembisa Hospital.
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Our President as got a school of of Ministers and a Classroom of ministries in his office. He runs this country by either Commission or Committees. Yet when you asked him anything about is government he is always Shocked.
How was he elected to run this country.