MAKHUDU SEFARA | It's time to do the right thing, Mr President. Step down

Ours is a country whose challenges are many, complex and layered. It requires a president freely applying his mind to the issues, leading an army of people who do the right things to ensure the provision of services, but also cajoling and disciplining those who stray, trying daily to put their puffy fingers in the cookie jar.

This job can’t be done by one who has tried, for months, to evade simple questions about what he knew and what, in fact, took place at his farm. Even supporters willing to defend the landlord of Phala Phala farm in Limpopo have had to ask themselves many questions.

The report of the expert panel, headed by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, appointed by parliament, makes the job of defending President Cyril Ramaphosa even harder for his supporters. And that – undoing Ramaphosa’s support – is the terrain of the battle getting under way on Thursday morning as the president goes into his party’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting to argue or explain why he should not be removed.  

The Ngcobo panel’s recommendations, politically, ought to mean he is finished, but does it? Despite the noise from elsewhere, it all boils down to internal ANC considerations. Opposition parties will make speeches and speak at their loudest, but it hangs on whether Ramaphosa’s supporters turn their backs on him now that they know what Ngcobo has, in just over 30 days, found. If his support base does not disintegrate, this leaves his known ANC opponents shouting on the fringe. The ANC is very much capable of supporting a discredited leader – much the same way it did Ramaphosa’s predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

The ANC is very much capable of supporting a discredited leader - much the same way it did Ramaphosa's predecessor, Jacob Zuma

While the expert report was commissioned by parliament, the terrain of this battle is the NEC meeting taking place on Thursday, not parliament. The battle is within the ANC. The EFF knows this too, which is why its statement of Wednesday evening has an important last line about the possibility of the ANC defending its besieged president: “His (Ramaphosa's) political party (should it defend him) will be revealed as defenders of corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, kidnapping, torture and abuse of state resources, to hide his evil deeds.”

From the report and the process, what argument is Ramaphosa likely to make to the NEC to get him the support he needs to survive until he gets to the elective conference, which is two weeks away?

There will be war over the use of the word “may” in the finding that Ramaphosa may have violated the constitution or the law. Ramaphosa and his supporters will claim the work of the panel was limited to doing desktop research: they had no investigative capacity; could not cross-question potential witnesses; and relies on the existence of “substantial doubt” of Ramaphosa’s version (largely because he did not provide information) rather than on whether or not certain claims against him are true.

Lastly, Ramaphosa may argue the utility of the report is on establishing whether or not there exists grounds to impeach him – and not whether the case against him has been proven beyond a doubt, which work must still be performed by the impeachment committee that must now be set up.

If he chooses to be legalistic rather than political in his response, he will use this line from chief justice Ngcobo to buy himself time: “It is not the function of the panel to enquire into whether the president is guilty of a serious violation of the constitution or the law, or a serious misconduct. That is the function of the impeachment committee, which is empowered to investigate the matter fully, including summoning persons to give evidence before it or to produce documents and hold public hearings.”

Right now, Ramaphosa is a wounded, tired, buffalo. He will try to hang on to bits of the report that read thus: “We (expert panel) neither have the tools nor the power to excavate beneath the information that we have been provided with to uncover the answers to the unanswered questions.” Put differently, there’s still a need for a probe. This expert panel report was a “filter,” as the panel itself put it.

But if Ramaphosa fails at the NEC, he might choose to fall on his sword, saying (to save face) that he is stepping down in the interests of the credibility of the probes that must now get under way when the investigations by other organs of state never stopped him in his tracks before.

But the important point is that if he loses the NEC, he loses in parliament. That becomes the end of his story. The end of a political star that rose in the shadows of Nelson Mandela. It becomes the undignified fall from grace of a Ramaphosa who, along with Mandela and others, helped negotiate our path to democracy. Our chief author of our constitution but one who is now falling foul of its lofty promises, checks and balances.

While the panel’s report is essentially a desktop affair done at great speed, Ngcobo and his team leave no doubt that Ramaphosa is undeserving of the high office. His response is woefully inadequate. This could be a function of someone who did not know how to respond because he was caught out with dollars in his mattresses – or whatever other reason.

The panel carefully teases out examples that reinforce what we have always known – that the president’s story does not make sense.

One of these is Ramaphosa’s claim that the dollars were the result of a transaction in which Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim Hazim, a businessman from Sudan, bought animals at his game farm. The panel notes: “We are left with the impression that Mr Hazim decided to come to the farm on Christmas day in 2019 to view buffaloes carrying more than half a million US$ in cash. After paying $580,000 for the buffaloes, Mr Hazim left with no indication when he would return to collect his buffaloes. In fact, there is no indication that he returned at all. We are not told what arrangements, if any, were made with Mr Hazim to collect the buffaloes or have them exported to him. Why would anyone pay such a huge sum of money in cash and thereafter leave the goods without indicating when he would come back to collect the buffaloes or leaving an address for the delivery of the animals?”

Quite a mouthful that a supposedly innocent president must answer.

It doesn’t end here though. The panel lists these puzzles Ramaphosa still has to clarify:

- The exact amount of foreign currency stolen is yet to be disclosed.

- The investigation by the SA Reserve Bank suggests strongly that it had no records of this money entering the country or being reported as having been received.

- Other than his name, there are no other particulars of Mr Hazim such as his physical address, telephone numbers, business address, and other personal details such as his passport number.

- Having bought 20 buffaloes, Mr Hazim has not collected these buffaloes for the past two-an- a-half years.

- Instead of keeping the money in the safe until the next banking day, the money is kept concealed in a sofa for well over a month.

- The theft of the money was not reported to the SAPS and no case number or docket is registered.

- Information placed before the panel suggests that more than US$580,000 was stolen.

- Suspects were arrested, interrogated and co-operated with the investigating team and yet no one has been charged, prosecuted, and convicted. This occurs amid allegations that the suspects were paid R150,000 each to buy their silence.

As he goes into the NEC or contemplates addressing the nation, Ramaphosa must think of the answers to the aforementioned. Some will also say that Ramaphosa’s removal will likely benefit architects and chief enforcers of state capture, as Northern Cape ANC chairperson Zamani Saul once said.

Politically though, Ramaphosa's big ask is time. Two weeks to be exact.

It shouldn’t have to be either or. If that’s all the ANC has to offer – tainted state capture leaders or prima facie dodgy Ramaphosa – then the ANC has nothing more to offer. In truth though, the ANC has many more credible, though not necessarily popular, leaders.

Politically, though, Ramaphosa’s big ask is time. Two weeks to be exact. He has come close to victory. The official nominations put him far ahead of his competitors. And he is only two weeks away from the elective conference. What must matter though for the ANC and the country is whether our national interest is best served with so compromised a leader at the helm.

The panel report confirms what we have always known – that Ramaphosa is mired in corruption much like his predecessor. Our country faces many challenges that require a president not distracted by the Phala Phala scandal. Ramaphosa is no anti-corruption fighter he styled himself as. He is no epitome of good governance. He has disgraced himself. It is time, Mr President, to do the right thing for a change. Don’t step aside – just step down.

PODCAST | Curb your enthusiasm folks… 2029’s the year; not 2024