THE African Transformation Movement (ATM) said on Wednesday that it was only looking for a proclamation that would state that President Cyril Ramaphosa had a case to answer surrounding the Phala Phala game farm scandal in which the theft of millions of US dollars was not reported to the police.
The ATM spokesperson Zama Ntshona said this shortly before the three-member Section 89 Panel led by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo handed over the report on the matter to Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Ntshona told Independent Media that his party was disappointed that the panel held its assessment of the Ramaphosa matter in a closed session, which prevented it from presenting the “mountains of evidence” to prove that the president had a case to answer.
“Basically, if the panel does not say he has something to answer, then we are clear that the process was a fraud,” said Ntshona.
Like all other political parties represented in Parliament, the ATM was expecting that the three-volume report would be released to the parties and public as soon as Mapisa-Nqakula received it from Judge Ngcobo on Wednesday morning.
But it was not to be so as Mapisa-Nqakula said the electronic version of the report would be published through ATC, a platform on which Parliament publishes public documents.
In anticipation of what the report contained, Ntshona said it should not have been difficult for judges who have spent many years protecting the country’s Constitution to “all of sudden not able to interpret the Constitution in line with the violations that have been brought forward”.
According to the ATM, Ramaphosa violated several provisions of the Constitution, including Section 96, sub-section 2(A) and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
“He is on record saying ‘I did not report to the police’ while we know that the Preca (Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities) Act sub-section 1 is very clear on the matter that any criminality involves money over R100 000, it is important that it is then reported to DPCI (Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation) office,” said Ntshona.
He said Ramaphosa should account for doing a profitable private business transaction, whereas the law stated that members of the Cabinet should not have other paying work.
Ntshona also believed that Ramaphosa had breached South African Revenue Service (Sars) and South African Reserve Bank (SARB) policies by failing to declare the money that he had generated privately.
“There is no way that there is no clear admission of guilt as Section 96 of the Constitution, sub-section 2(A) says members of the cabinet shall not have other paying work,” Ntshona said.
He said Ramaphosa should also be held accountable for the abduction and kidnapping of the suspects who broke into his house and stole the money.
Judge Ngcobo said there was no bias in the work of the panel and its outcome. “It is not in my blood to disregard the law. I live by the law, and this is what I have to do,” he said.
Ngcobo said part of the information that the panel used to come to its conclusion came from the EFF, UDM and ATM. “We are not talking about two pages, three pages. We are talking about pages and pages and recording. We have asked them to transcribe audio recordings, but they were given extremely short notice to respond, and they responded on time,” said Judge Ngcobo.