Johannesburg - UDM leader Bantu Holomisa has accused the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) of trying to hide the recent report it compiled on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm scandal.
On Tuesday, Holomisa said he wrote to the SARB in accordance with the PAIA Act, requesting access to the recent SARB Phala Phala Report.
This comes after the central bank cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa of wrongdoing in the case involving more than $500 000 that were stolen from his farm in February 2020.
In its report, the SARB said no exchange control laws were violated in the “transaction”’ between Ramaphosa’s farm and a Sudanese businessman for 20 buffaloes.
The Reserve Bank published the limited findings of its probe into the matter on Monday after the matter was set aside on a technicality.
In a letter addressed to SARB governor Lesetja Kganyago, Holomisa said Monday’s report was of public interest and thus should not be kept secret.
“The UDM has noted that the SARB has issued a media statement titled ‘SARB Phala Phala Report’ on August 21, 2023, wherein it concluded that due to legislative requirements and constraints, the report is to remain a ‘private internal report and will not be made public’.
“The UDM is of the opinion that the SARB’s Phala Phala report is in the interest of the public, and precisely because our systems of government before April 27, 1994, amongst others, resulted in a secretive, unresponsive culture in public and private bodies that often led to abuse of power, the SARB’s Phala Phala report must come to light,” Holomisa said.
Since the Phala Phala farm scandal erupted in June last year, there have been numerous questions asked about the source of the money that was eventually stolen by a group of Namibian nationals who allegedly worked with Ramaphosa’s helper to arrange the heist.
Last year, a Sudanese businessman named Hazim Mustafa claimed that he had purchased 20 buffalo, which he had not taken receipt of at the time of the theft.
“We should be past this secretive, unresponsive culture in public and private bodies, which often led to an abuse of power,” Holomisa said.
Holomisa was not the only person who penned a letter to Kganyago.
DA MP Dion George has also penned an open letter to the governor, expressing his concerns about his findings.
“The SARB finds that there was no perfected transaction, and thus the SARB cannot conclude that there was any contravention of the exchange control regulations. Given that there was no legal entitlement to the foreign currency, there was no contravention.
“Your media release is 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 the transaction status is considered the deciding factor, then the door is wide open to money laundering and foreign currency being held for lengthy periods pending transaction completion,” George said.
The Star