An investigation into whether President Cyril Ramaphosa lied to parliament about a US$36‚000 donation from a firm to his party presidential campaign is at an “advanced stage,” South Africa’s Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has confirmed this weekend.
Mkhwebane, however‚ has neither confirmed nor denied that she had issued Ramaphosa with a notice that he was implicated in her probe.
The notice would allow those found to be implicated during the public protector’s investigation an opportunity to respond.
In a YouTube video entitled “PP: Bosasa investigation ongoing‚ not yet at a reporting stage”‚ Mkhwebane said she wanted to take the opportunity to deal with the investigation that was lodged by the opposition Democratic Alliance against the president.
“I’ve had several media inquiries alleging that I finalised the report or I have issued a section 7(9) notice. I would want to put it on record that the investigation is at an advanced stage and the report is not yet ready‚ so I will announce when that time comes,” the Ombudsman said in her YouTube clip.
Following the DA’s complaint against the Ramaphosa, Mkhwebane – an appointee of former president Jacob Zuma – opened a probe to find out if he had been economical with the truth that the money in question were earnings from his son Andile’s consultancy firm.
However, it later transpired that his son obtained the funds from a firm which had suspect dealings with government tenders.
When this came out in public, Ramaphosa was forced to make “corrections” to the original statement in Parliament.
The president’s change of statement (“corrections”) in the House led the opposition DA to file a complaint with the Ombudsman to begin the current probe.
Ramaphosa has maintained that he had no intention of misleading parliament when he told the National Assembly in 2018 that his son Andile had received money from the firm called Bosasa — now trading as African Global Operations — for services rendered in terms of a consultancy contract.
NM/as/APA