'He must address the nation' — Holomisa calls on Ramaphosa to name colleagues who misused public funds

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa says President Cyril Ramaphosa must publicly explain to SA which departments, municipalities or SOEs misused public funds. 

This comes after a leaked recording of an ANC NEC meeting that suggested state funds were misused for an internal party campaign.

Parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) said it could call Ramaphosa to appear before it to explain the comments made in the leaked audio recording.

Ramaphosa is accused of possibly perjuring himself when he testified at the Zondo commission by omitting to tell it about his knowledge of the alleged use of state funds for an internal ANC campaign.

Weighing in on the matter, Holomisa called on Ramaphosa to address the nation.

“The president must address the nation and tell us which other departments, municipalities and SOEs in his organisation and fellow colleagues siphoned the public funds,” he said. 

Speaking on eNCA, Holomisa said the leaked audio confirms suspicions that state resources were used to benefit the ruling party.

“What President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to do is come forward and confirm what he knows about that clip,” Holomisa said.

“The public wants to know when did he know about the ANC misusing state resources? We want to know what he meant [when he said] that he would rather fall on his sword than report the perpetrators?” 

Holomisa said he hopes Scopa will dig deeper into the matter.