President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is appalled by allegations made against corruption-accused tender tycoon Hangwani Maumela, the man at the centre of the R2bn Tembisa Hospital looting.
Speaking publicly about the issue for the first time, Ramaphosa said he has never had dealings with him; only brief, chance encounters over the years.
Ramaphosa said questions about his links to Maumela surfaced in 2022, when DA leader John Steenhuisen asked him about the businessman.
“When I said to Steenhuisen in 2022 I didn’t know him because I had never encountered or seen him, that was gospel truth.”
At that time he had not met Maumela, despite later revelations that Maumela is the nephew of his former wife.
Listen to Ramaphosa:
The president said his first encounter with Maumela happened later.
“Later, in 2023, as I was walking in my neighbourhood, I walked past a house with one of my colleagues who’s now a deputy minister. Walking there, a car comes past with [radio host] Tbo Touch; he gets out of the car with another gentleman. He wants to talk to me, to photograph, and now we are against this wall of this huge house. So then the allegation is the person in the photograph is Maumela; it was not Maumela — it was Tbo Touch and [a] Mr Jones from the US, I later learnt.”
Ramaphosa said in 2024 he encountered Maumela while walking in the same area. “A person comes out of this house and he greets me. He says, ‘I am Hangwani Maumela,’ so I say, ‘so you are the Maumela who is putting my name into disrepute?’ And he smiles away.”
Another brief encounter occurred on December 26 2024, when he was walking with his daughter, and a young man approached to say his mother wanted to meet him.
“I have encountered him — you can make what you like of it. Do I deal with [him]? No. Do I meet and sit down with him? No. Do I visit him at his house? No. Am I appalled by the allegations that are being made against him? Yes, I am appalled. The Special Investigating Unit [SIU] has taken action and I applaud that. The SIU is reclaiming stolen money.”
The SIU last week attached Maumela’s Sandton home and assets as part of its investigation into tender corruption at Tembisa Hospital. According to the SIU, Maumela headed a syndicate accused of syphoning off almost R900m. The unit has filed papers to recover funds linked to the R2bn in irregular tenders, which sparked a national outcry after whistle-blower Babita Deokaran’s murder in 2021.
Ramaphosa was responding to oral questions in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday afternoon.
TimesLIVE
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