Cyril Ramaphosa camp reeling from dodgy donation

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s backers say they will pay back the R500,000 donated to them by controversial company Bosasa.

This is an effort to stem the embarrassment following his flip-flopping on what the money was for.

Ramaphosa on Friday admitted that the money, which he was quizzed about in parliament by DA leader Mmusi Maimane, was donated to his campaign by Bosasa and not given to his son, Andile, as initially stated.

In addition to repaying Bosasa, Ramaphosa’s backers have also decided to do an audit of all donations the campaign received to ensure the sources of the funds were above board.

CR17 campaign manager, Bejani Chauke, who now serves as an adviser to Ramaphosa, said the president was not aware of the money donated to the campaign by Bosasa and was only informed about it after he was asked in parliament by Maimane.

Chauke said: “The fundraising team has confirmed to us [the campaign management team] that the funds referred to in a parliamentary question on November 6 2018 were paid into a trust account that was one of the avenues used by the CR17 campaign to temporarily house the funds raised for the campaign.”

But Maimane said he does not buy Ramaphosa’s explanation, likening it to former president Jacob Zuma telling parliament he had a bond for his Nkandla home and he did not know that government paid for non-security upgrades at his private residence.

Read the full story in the Sunday Times.