The Reserve Bank will be required to report as soon as possible to parliament’s finance committee on its investigation of foreign-exchange declarations by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Hundreds of thousands of US dollars were stolen from the president’s Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo in 2020, prompting allegations of a possible cover-up by those near the president.
Various organisations are investigating the theft, reported to the police by former intelligence boss Arthur Fraser. These include the Hawks, the Reserve Bank and public protector’s office.
The committee made the call at its meeting on Wednesday. This was after EFF MP Floyd Shivambu insisted that the Bank should be held accountable to parliament on a matter of public interest and that it disclose the results of its investigation into a possible contravention of exchange-control regulations.
Shivambu threatened that the EFF will take the Bank to court if no answers are forthcoming.
Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, who appeared with his team to report on the state of the economy and the annual reports of the Bank and the Prudential Authority, would not comment on the investigations before they were completed, saying that would undermine them.
“It is practice that we do not comment on any of our investigations,” he said. “We are working with the law-enforcement authorities on this. I do not think it would serve ... any good trying to get into the details of what is going on. It would undermine the investigations that we are doing.”
But Shivambu insisted on him doing so, saying that to know whether someone declared foreign currency does not require an in-depth investigation.
Committee chair Joe Maswanganyi said parliament’s legal advisers and the Bank’s legal team will decide on a suitable date for the report-back.
The cash stolen from the game farm was allegedly proceeds of the sale of cattle, but foreign currency is not legal tender in SA. The Bank’s exchange-control regulations state that residents of SA who have become “entitled to sell or to procure the sale of any foreign currency” have 30 days to sell it to an authorised dealer (a bank).
Meanwhile, opposition parties represented in parliament said they plan to escalate their joint efforts to hold Ramaphosa accountable on the farmgate scandal, including pressuring the public protector to release an interim report on findings and instituting a motion of no confidence against the president.
On Wednesday, the DA, EFF, IFP, UDM, National Freedom Party, African Transformation Movement, African Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus held a media briefing detailing their collective action.
The opposition parties, holding more than 40% of the seats in the National Assembly, have called on acting public protector Kholeka Gcaleka, who is also probing the matter, to publicly release an interim report on her findings.
Parties are busy with nominating candidates for a potential independent panel, which could include former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, that will ascertain the veracity of these allegations against Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa has denied allegations that he is part of a cover-up. He has had meetings with the ANC’s integrity committee since July in which he was made to affirm that the stolen money was, indeed, the product of the sale of cattle stock, as he has asserted. He insisted the sum stolen at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo in 2020 was far less than the alleged $4m (R65.9m).
EFF leader Julius Malema has said the Bank, the Financial Intelligence Centre, SA Revenue Service and the SA Police Service must not be allowed to be part of a cover-up mission that seeks to hide and conceal the violation by the sitting president of the laws of this country, his oath of office and the constitution.
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