The organisers of a cattle auction to be held at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm have stressed that no cash will be exchanged during trading.
Despite the dark cloud hanging over Ramaphosa, who is accused of concealing the 2020 theft of US dollars that took place on his farm, the organisers of the national Ankole auction said they would not change the venue as they had long planned to hold the auction on the game farm in Limpopo and had already paid to use the facility.
The auction will be held on June 18, when a variety of Ankole cattle will be on offer.
The auction is organised by the Ankole Cattle Breeders’ Society of SA and will be facilitated by Veewinkel — an auction house under Veilingswinkel. About 200 people who are in the cattle and game breeding business are expected to attend, said the society’s president, Jacques Malan.
Malan did not want to disclose the amount his organisation paid to secure the venue for the auction.
Juan-Pierre Smith, COO of Veilingswinkel, said no cash purchases would be allowed.
“We only work with electronic transfers. We do not accept cash through any of our businesses. The auction works like any auction business has been working for the last hundreds of years. There is a product or animal that is sold by a seller. We market the animal, as the auction house. We then have the auction function on the day where the auctioneer sells the animal.
“Then we send out electronic invoices. The client that buys the animal from the seller, pays the invoice by electronic transfer and the animal gets delivered to the buyer and the funds are released to the seller,” said Smith.
Malan said the one-day auction will see between 50 to 60 head of cattle on offer.
Ramaphosa has recently been under immense pressure after former correctional services commissioner and State Security Agency boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal complaint against him two weeks ago, accusing him of concealing the “theft of millions of US dollars [more than $4m]” at his farm.
Fraser also accused the president of money laundering and of kidnapping the people said to have been behind the theft. Fraser alleged the president used state resources to trace the suspects and offered them bribes to keep the robbery secret.
Ramaphosa’s office confirmed the robbery and said the crime had been reported to the head of the presidential protection unit of the SA Police Service for investigation.
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