NPA assessing Phala Phala docket and may decide on next step

Hawks boss Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya says the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is assessing the Phala Phala matter.

Lebeya said on Thursday should there be no further queries from the NPA, the prosecution body might decide on what needs to happen next.

In June last year, former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges against President Cyril Ramaphosa over an alleged burglary at his Limpopo game farm in February 2020.

Fraser alleged Ramaphosa’s farmhouse was burgled and $4m (R67.8m) in cash was stolen by two foreigners. The money was allegedly stuffed in couches inside the president’s home.

In March, Lebeya said his unit had obtained 126 statements regarding Phala Phala, adding investigations were continuing.

“The NPA is assessing the case. When we conduct this investigation we do it alone because we are not the ones who are going to make the final decision, so they are assessing the case. There were two minor enquiries raised with us which we are attending to. Should there be no further queries they might make a decision on what needs to happen next,” he said.

Responding to allegations that the Hawks are dragging their feet in investigating state capture cases, Lebeya said the Hawks were committed to the investigations. 

They were already making arrests while the commission into state capture was under way.

“We have so far indicated five cases with the Hawks are already on the court roll. In those cases, there are 20 suspects charged — natural persons and jurisdictional persons.

“We have indicated that some of the cases we were handling were later declared by the NPA's Investigating Directorate [ID] to be part of the matters they want to investigate, understanding that the ID was specifically established to deal with matters from the commission. We had to take what they are not going to deal with. That is why we allowed the matters we [have] already [made] arrests [in] to go to the ID,” he said.

Arrests had also been made in connection with the Bosasa matter.

“We have in this investigation obtained more than 2,000 statements ... we have put together a team of 20 investigators to focus on state capture cases. Over and above the 20 we have from the [Hawks], we have assigned 15 investigators to the ID to assist in those cases they have declared so they don't start from scratch — we work as a team with the NPA and other role players. There are regular meetings where we engage so the matters of common interest, we investigate those jointly,” said Lebeya.

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