Day: June 6, 2022

Posted on

South Africa’s president mired in break-in mystery

JOHANNESBURG— South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is embroiled in a growing scandal centred on the theft of cash from his sprawling cattle farm.

Ramaphosa is accused of complicity in buying the silence of the burglars who were allegedly detained on his property, charges which he fiercely denies as he vies to stay on as ruling party leader.

The office of Ramaphosa, who is known affectionately as “the buffalo” for his collection of prize cattle, attempted to snuff out speculation and intrigue with a business-as-usual statement.

“While there is much public interest and concern” the president remained “firmly focused on the task of rebuilding the economy and the country”, the presidency said.

The scandal came to light after a criminal case was brought by the country’s former spymaster and ruling ANC member Arthur Fraser, now threatening to overshadow the president’s effort to remain party leader.

Ramaphosa will face party members at a conference in December during which he could be ousted from the ANC’s top job.

The 69-year-old party veteran who succeeded Jacob Zuma as president of both the party and South Africa has insisted he was not involved in any criminal conduct.

The president, who has a considerable personal fortune, vowed to continue the fight against corruption, but pledged “once again” to cooperate fully with any investigation.

The presidency stressed it would “not be able” to go into details of the case, leaving the police and the judiciary to their work.

The saga began in February 2020, according to the complaint filed at a Johannesburg police station by Fraser, the former South African intelligence chief. 

Robbers allegedly broke into Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in the northeast of the country where they found $4 million in cash hidden in furniture.

Ramaphosa himself has disputed the sum of money in question, but accepted that he buys and sells animals “sometimes through cash sometimes through transfers”.

“I’ve never stolen money from anywhere and I will never do so. I have never stolen from taxpayers,” Ramaphosa added.

The case accuses Ramaphosa of concealing the theft from police and the tax authorities.

It sensationally alleges that the president then “paid” the burglars “for their silence”.

Fraser, who said he provided police with “photos, bank accounts, names and videos”, accused Ramaphosa of obstruction of justice and organising for the suspects to be kidnapped, interrogated on his property and paid off.

The president’s office confirmed an “armed robbery” in Ramaphosa’s Limpopo game reserve, during which the proceeds from the sale of cattle were stolen.

The president, who was attending an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, was not present at the time. 

“On being advised of the robbery, President Ramaphosa reported the incident to the head of the Presidential Protection Unit of the South African Police Service for investigation,” the presidency said.

Speaking at an ANC provincial conference in Limpopo on Sunday, Ramaphosa himself suggested there could be a “political agenda” behind the allegations.

In the early 2000s, Ramaphosa, considered Nelson Mandela’s “favourite son”, left politics to become a highly successful businessman.

The ambitious leader, who hails from a humble background in Soweto, in 2015 ranked 42nd on Forbes’s list of Africa’s richest people, with a fortune of nearly 400 million euros.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) must decide by December whether to retain Ramaphosa as president in 2024.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Posted on

South Africa’s President Faces Probe Over Unreported Theft

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing a criminal investigation after a revelation that he failed to report the theft of about $4 million in cash from his farm in northern Limpopo province.

An account of the theft is contained in an affidavit by the country’s former head of intelligence Arthur Fraser, who has opened a case against Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa has not denied the theft but claims that he reported it to the head of his VIP Protection unit, who did not report it to the police.

In South Africa it is illegal not to report a crime and according to Fraser’s affidavit, Ramaphosa tried to conceal the theft, which happened in February 2020 when he was attending an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Several opposition parties have called for a full investigation into the theft, including whether the amount of foreign currency allegedly stolen had been declared to the South African Revenue Service.

The Democratic Alliance, the country’s biggest opposition party, said Ramaphosa should come clean about the circumstances surrounding the theft and why it was not reported to the police.

“The president is facing a crisis of credibility and cannot hide behind procedural smokescreens to avoid presenting South Africans with the full truth around the money that was stolen from his farm, and the subsequent cover-up,” the opposition party’s leader John Steenhuisen said in a statement.

Another opposition party, the United Democratic Movement, has called on Ramaphosa to take a “leave of absence” while Parliament probes the incident, saying it is not prudent for it to do so while he was in office.

Ramaphosa publicly spoke about the incident for the first time over the weekend since the revelations surfaced, saying the cash was from buying and selling animals on his farm.

“I want to reaffirm that I was not involved in any criminal conduct, and once again I pledge my full cooperation with any form of investigation,” said Ramaphosa on Sunday.

“I would like to say that I’m a farmer. I’m in the cattle business and the game business. And through that business, which has been declared to Parliament and all over, I buy and I sell animals,” he said.

The sales are sometimes through cash and sometimes through transfers, and what is being reported is a clear business transaction of selling animals, said Ramaphosa.

He was addressing the Limpopo provincial conference of the ruling party, the African National Congress, where his political allies were re-elected, boosting his own chances for re-election as the ANC’s president at the party’s national conference in December.

Ramaphosa’s supporters have cried foul, saying the timing of the revelation is part of efforts to derail his efforts to be re-elected party president in December.

The information about the theft was revealed by Fraser, the former head of South Africa’s intelligence, who is known to be loyal to former President Jacob Zuma.

Fraser controversially approved Zuma’s release from prison on medical parole last year, an action that is now being contested in court as illegal. Zuma had been sent to prison last year after he was convicted of defying the Constitutional Court by refusing to testify at a judicial inquiry probing allegations of corruption during his presidential term from 2009 to 2018.

Source: Voice of America

Posted on

DRC Army: M23 Rebels Kill Two Congo Soldiers as Fighting Resumes

Two soldiers were killed Monday in fighting against M23 militants in eastern Congo, the DRC army said, the latest violence in a long-standing conflict that has escalated in recent weeks and caused a diplomatic rift with Rwanda.

The rebels shelled an army position in North Kivu, killing two soldiers and injuring five. Congo accuses the neighboring state of supporting the M23, which Rwanda denies.

That clash followed a raid on a village in neighboring Ituri province on Sunday by suspected Islamists from another rebel group that killed at least 18 people, local sources said.

Fighters believed to be from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed residents and burned down houses in Otomabere, said a witness, a local chief and a local human rights group.

Congolese army spokesman Jules Ngongo confirmed the ADF attack without giving a death toll, and said Congolese forces were in pursuit of the rebels.

The ADF is a Ugandan militia that moved to eastern Congo in the 1990s and killed more than 1,300 people between January 2021 and January 2022, according to a United Nations report.

“We were chatting with some friends outside (when) we heard gunshots, and everyone fled in a different direction. It was total panic,” said Kimwenza Malembe, a resident of Otomabere.

“This morning we counted 18 dead, killed by knives and firearms.”

Irumu chief Jonas Izorabo Lemi said he had received word of 20 dead.

Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local group Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), put the death toll at 27, up from a provisional figure of 20.

Uganda has sent at least 1,700 troops to neighboring Congo to help fight the ADF, and last week the two countries extended a joint operation launched late last year.

Source: Voice of America