MKHWEBANE'S PROBE INTO THE PHALA PHALA SAGA WAS BASED ON HEARSAY: GCALEKA

Acting Public Protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka said the Chapter 9 institution only obtained Arthur Fraser's affidavit - which the investigation is based - on at a later stage.

Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka presents the controversial Phala Phala saga report - among others - on 30 June 2023. Photo: Xanderleigh Dookey Makhaza/Eyewitness

Lindsay Dentlinger | 30 June 2023 20:15

CAPE TOWN - Acting Public Protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka said suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane only contributed to the Phala Phala investigation by sending President Cyril Ramaphosa questions based purely on hearsay.

Gcaleka cleared Ramaphosa of violating the executive members' ethics code.

It's taken a year for the Office of the Public Protector to complete its investigation with Mkhwebane claiming that her suspension was due to the work she had been doing on Phala Phala.

While Mkhwebane signed off the questions sent to the president, Gcaleka managed and oversaw the investigation as the acting Public Protector.

Gcaleka said the Chapter 9 institution only obtained Arthur Fraser's affidavit - which the investigation is based - on at a later stage.

"And I must say that at a time that these questions were signed off to the president they were based on hearsay evidence that the Public Protector did not have in her possession."

Meanwhile, there has been swift reaction from opposition parties to the release of the report.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has labelled it a whitewash with party leader John Steenhuisen insisting the president has abused power and special treatment by the South African Police Service (Saps).

Echoing the African Transformation Movement, the other political complainant in the matter Steenhuisen said the DA would also challenge the findings in court.

The report has cleared the president of breaching the Executive Members' Ethics Act, citing no evidence of a conflict between Ramaphosa’s official position and his private business interests.

The DA said Gcaleka has contorted the law in her interpretation of the Executive Members' Ethics Act.

Steenhuisen said it just can’t be that Ramaphosa was an innocent bystander to the Saps chasing after millions of US dollars stolen from his Limpopo farm, Phala Phala, in 2020.

"The president used the Presidential Protection Unit, something that is not provided to any other person, to bypass the normal Saps channels and to then search for money that accrued to his private business interests at Phala Phala."

Steenhuisen said the DA would be consulting its lawyers to take the report on review.

"She’s ignored the point that it was the president who called Rhoode. How do you find Mr Rhoode guilty, but the president is somehow reduced to an innocent bystander in the whole matter."

He said this report also flies in the face of the findings of an independent legal panel headed by a retired judge - that Ramaphosa does have a case to answer to.