The calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s resignation comes after the response to the DA’s Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to the the South African Revenue Service, have confirmed that it has no record of the $580 000 (R10 million) that was stolen during a robbery at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in 2020.
Last year Ramaphosa claimed that he received a cash payment for cattle from a Sudanese businessman, Hazim Mustafa, who in a media interview also confirmed he compiled with the requirement to declare the money to the tax agency officials at the OR Tambo airport upon entering the country.
The DA received the response this morning, accompanied by an affidavit from legal specialist in SARS corporate legal services department, Siyabonga Nkabinde.
“On or around 17 January 2023 I commenced engagements with various business units within SARS that I believed may be in the custody/and/or be in possession and/or have knowledge of the record requested and was advised that pursuant to the search for the record in various SARS Passenger Processing Systems the record could not be found and/or may not be in existence,” read Nkabinde’s affidavit.
This comes as a second blow to Ramaphosa as the Constitutional Court also dismissed his application to challenge the Section 89 independent panel report, which found that he may have a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala matter.
These findings, according to the national spokesperson for the African Transformation Movement (ATM), Zama Ntshona, are unequivocal proof that Ramaphosa allegedly stole from the poor.
“If you evade tax you are a fiscal thief. It cannot be that South Africa allows a Constitutional Delinquent and a fiscal thief to reshuffle cabinet,” he said.
Ramaphosa announced changes to his cabinet this evening at 8.30pm, with high anticipation being the appointment of the Minister of electricity, a first for South Africa, among others.
Ntshona says parliament speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula must also be held accountable in the Phala Phala matter.
“The speaker must hang her head in shame for leading the charge to undermine the Constitutional Court counsel where Parliament was strongly criticised for its failure to hold the Executive accountable in the previous administration. The speaker is repeating the same substandard performance,” he added.
South Africa is yet to see more efforts and calls for Ramaphosa’s resignation as one of the items of the EFF’s planned national shutdown on the 20th of March 2023 is to have him leave office.
