Is the wool being pulled over our eyes about those “buffalo dollars” stolen from a couch on a private game farm owned by the country’s first citizen?
There are still too many unanswered questions and a growing sense of mistrust brewing over transparency and accountability in the ongoing Phala Phala saga.
Several burning questions are being asked after the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) concluded on Monday that president Cyril Ramaphosa and Ntaba Nyoni Estates did not contravene exchange control regulations in the “sale” of buffalo and subsequent theft of at least R10.7m in foreign currency from the farm in 2020.
The central bank assures us they conducted a “comprehensive” probe, lasting about a year, into whether exchange control regulations were flouted in the deal with Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa. However, details in the report are being kept under wraps due to “legislative requirements and constraints”, said the bank.
What was shared with the public, couched in terms that left many confused, was: “On the facts available to it, the Sarb finds that there was no perfected transaction, and thus the Sarb cannot conclude there was any contravention of the exchange control regulations.”
Translated, “perfected transaction” essentially means the transaction was not concluded. Mustafa did not take delivery of the buffalo; the contract was not concluded and therefore the president or farm was not entitled to the dollars in the couch. Nothing to report.
The probe stemmed from allegations made by former correctional services boss Arthur Fraser regarding the theft of at least $580,000 of undeclared foreign currency from the president’s private game farm, in addition to other complaints made to the central bank, as previously reported by TimesLIVE Premium.
It also remains unclear who, at the time, should have declared the dollars. The SA Revenue Service could not find a record of Mustafa having declared the cash.
There are strict regulations compelling South Africans to declare foreign currency transactions, within 30 days, to the Treasury.
Opposition parties and critics have labelled the central bank’s findings a whitewash, suggesting it was a ploy to shield Ramaphosa, now hosting the Brics summit in Johannesburg.
Redge Nkosi, executive director and head of research for money, banking and macroeconomics at Firstsource Money concurred, telling SABC news: “I think it’s a whitewash.” He questioned whether the bank had been drawn into playing a “political game, not in the best interests of the country”.
Was the president in possession of the money legally or not? Where is the money now? he asked.
DA MP Dr Dion George said the bank remains “completely silent on the apparent fact that foreign currency was actually in the president’s possession. That is the crux of the matter, not whether the transaction was perfected or not. The status of the transaction cannot be the determinant, it is the possession of the currency”.
If transaction status was the deciding factor, the bank’s finding would leave the door “wide open to money-laundering and foreign currency being held for lengthy periods pending transaction completion” by others, he argued.
If there was no “perfected transaction”, why was the transaction registered in the books of Ntaba Nyoni Estates CC and how did the SA Revenue Service determine that Ntaba Nyoni, which manages Phala Phala, was tax-compliant, asked the EFF.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba bluntly questioned how it was possible for $580,000 to be hidden in a couch without the country’s financial agencies being aware.
It also remains unclear who, at the time, should have declared the dollars. The SA Revenue Service could not find a record of Mustafa having declared the cash.
They are all valid questions and the information vacuum created by not releasing any further details about the investigation will fuel suspicion about a cover-up.
Speculation about preferential treatment being afforded to the president, in this case, is not something the country needs, given our recent greylisting by the global financial crime watchdog the Financial Action Task Force.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.