On Monday President Cyril Ramaphosa released his weekly newsletter and did not address the growing scandal surrounding more than $500,000 (R8.5m) he kept in his couch.
The letter, titled “The fight to recover ill-gotten gains is gathering steam”, was released as Ramaphosa himself faces allegations of ill-gotten gains on his Phala Phala farm.
Bizarrely, Ramaphosa’s letter focused on the NPA’s efforts to return funds stolen from state-owned entities to public coffers and said not a thing about #farmgate.
“For the last five years, we have been working hard to end the looting of resources meant for the benefit of SA’s people, to prosecute those responsible and recover stolen funds. When we embarked on this journey, we understood that the results would not be felt overnight ... Many of those involved in state capture and their enablers in the private sector saw nothing wrong with diverting public funds to private pockets. At the height of the state capture era, unscrupulous politicians repurposed state institutions for private enrichment and to cover their tracks,” he wrote, while still putting on the clothes of an anti-corruption champion.
At no point did he mention the scandal hovering over his presidency since Arthur Fraser first made the allegations in June this year, or the section 89 panel’s report, leaving the elephant (or is it a buffalo?) to take up considerable space in the room. Having filed papers in the Constitutional Court and explained his rationale to the ANC national executive committee, Ramaphosa appears to have decided he’s going to pretend we’re back to business as usual. He wrote his letter, as usual, then opened the World Science Forum in Cape Town, a man unconcerned with the Phala Phala storm.
Ramaphosa seems to think he should be able to speak on behalf of SA when visiting the UK but does not owe them the courtesy of directly addressing the biggest issue of his presidency so far.
The business-as-usual approach is out of step with his initial reaction last week where he cancelled attendance of a parliamentary question and answer session. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya also suggested Ramaphosa was taking the nation’s concerns seriously, preparing an address for Friday. Then Magwenya backtracked, saying while Ramaphosa was “not panicking” he would not make a hasty statement.
“It’s about appropriately processing the report, getting the benefit of different views which are being expressed in the interest of the country and about being comfortable that when he embarks on a course of action and communicates that course, he would have considered all factors that need to be considered on the matter,” Magwenya said on Friday.
Now almost a full week later Ramaphosa has resolved to take the report on review but decided it is not worth communicating his discussion publicly or taking critical questions from journalists on the matter.
The president must realise this is not business as usual, and him acting otherwise undermines the very office he occupies, not purely as a result of his support in the ANC but of votes from ordinary citizens. It is ordinary citizens who have heard nothing from Ramaphosa on Phala Phala — not when asked in parliament several times, not when asked by journalists in press conferences, not of his own volition. Ramaphosa seems to think he should be able to speak on behalf of SA when visiting the UK and other places but does not owe them the courtesy of directly addressing the biggest issue of his presidency so far. The legal process is one thing, but the potential impact of the Phala Phala scandal is another. Already economists have speculated Ramaphosa’s removal could affect the strength of the rand. This is just one example of how Ramaphosa’s couch funds can hit our pocket, not to mention unexpected changes in leadership in the ruling party.
Having cancelled his meeting in parliament last week, he has also taken an opportunity away from citizens to have their duly elected representatives hold him accountable. The elephant is not only in the room, it has comfortably sprawled across the floor daring the president to speak up. It can’t be business as usual under these circumstances.
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