Cyril Ramaphosa is a liar and a professional denialist – Prince Mashele

Political commentator and analyst Prince Mashele has said that the vast majority of South Africans have lost trust in President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling him a liar and a professional denialist.

Mashele appeared on SMWX, where he discussed the President’s relationship with tenderpreneur and corruption-accused Hangwani Maumela.

“Look, here’s the thing about Cyril Ramaphosa. He is two things — a liar and a professional denialist,” Mashele said.

“He denies, denies, denies, denies, and later, when he is caught out, he’s going to weave some other story. Let’s be clear, 90% of South Africans have lost confidence in the President, and I encourage anyone to challenge me on that.”

“This is a president who thrives on fake ignorance. He is supposed to always be aware of what is going on in the country, but always says that he doesn’t know.”

However, Mashele says that even though he argues that Ramaphosa is a disappointing president, he will “be the first to take up arms in defence of Ramaphosa completing his tenure.”

The analyst says this is because holding an early election would set a dangerous precedent for the country. According to the constitution, South Africa must hold elections every five years.

The DA has made similar accusations, with the party’s spokesperson on health, Michele Clarke, alleging that Ramaphosa is protecting Maumela.

Clarke argues this is because the Presidency has said that their is insufficient evidence to expand the Special Investogating Unit’s investigation into all the dealings of those linked to the Tembisa hospital looting.

“Given that Maumela has already tried his luck in North West, it would not seem too far-fetched that his alleged extensive and sophisticated network have infiltrated other provinces as well,” she said.

Newsday has reached out to the Presidency, but did not receive a response by publication. Comment will be added when received.

A report by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), released on 29 September 2025, revealed that nine syndicates collectively looted at least R2.043 billion from Tembisa Hospital over several years.

Hangwani Maumela is implicated in the Tembisa Hospital capture investigation, part of a multi-year probe into the systematic looting of public funds.

Soon after the report implicated Maumela, it was alleged that Ramaphosa was related to the tender fraud kingpin, raising suspicions about whether the President was aware of his dodgy dealings.

In response, the spokesperson for the Presidency, Vincent Magwenya, said that “the President maintains that he has no personal relationship with Maumela. He is not related to him, except that he was married to his aunt many years ago.”

Ramaphosa later clarified his relationship with Maumela when he responded to a question from MK Party MP Mmabatho Mokoena during an oral session at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

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.”

The President was also asked about a video that went viral in 2023, taken by DJ Thabo “Tbo Touch” Molefe, showing Ramaphosa smiling for a photo with three men outside Maumela’s mansion in Sandton.

Ramaphosa was alongside Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Jomo Sibiya — who was a special adviser to the President at the time — DJ Tbo Touch, and Bishop Noel Jones.

The President stated that the viral photo and video circulating online were taken during one of his regular 6 a.m. 10 km walks in 2023, where people often stopped 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.

Magwenya later explained that Maumela’s house is located along one of the routes the President often uses when walking or driving to and from his residence.

“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 regularly and so forth… That is not true,” Ramaphosa said.

When Ramaphosa met Maumela

Ramaphosa also told Parliament that he had encountered Maumela, which contradicted remarks by Magwenya a week earlier, who claimed that the President had never met him.

“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.”

The President added that later that year, he was walking past the house with his daughter when Maumela came out of his residence and said, “Hello, Mr Ramaphosa, my mother is here.”

“‘Can you say hello to her?’ And I say, ‘Who is she?’ He says who she is.”

“So this is how this Maumela fellow then gets into this whole drama — because his aunt, who was my former wife 47 years ago, it’s his aunt — and he is really not my relative as such,” Ramaphosa added.