ActionSA has urged the Public Protector to reopen the Phala Phala investigation, citing new evidence that state resources may have been abused to cover up the robbery at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm.
The party’s call follows the release of a previously sealed report by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), which reveals wider involvement in the case than initially investigated.
The original Public Protector investigation focused on the conduct of the president and members of the Presidential Protection Unit. However, the IPID report shows the scope must be broadened to examine all officials with proximity to the president, ActionSA said.
Central to the new evidence is Dr Bejani Chauke, the president’s envoy for Africa, who served as a special adviser to Ramaphosa. According to the IPID report, Chauke travelled with Presidential Protection Unit members to Namibia using South African Police Service VIP resources without authorisation.
The visit was officially described as a national security matter but coincided with the arrest of the chief suspect in the farm robbery in Namibia. ActionSA said Chauke’s participation could only have been sanctioned by the president and would likely have required coordination with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
The revelations mark a shift in the investigation, which had previously focused exclusively on Presidential Protection Unit members. Unlike these officers, who have dual reporting lines to police leadership and the presidency, Chauke and other presidential office officials have clear reporting structures.
ActionSA fought for more than a year to have the IPID report released to the public. The process involved multiple Promotion of Access to Information Act applications, legal challenges and appeals before the report was finally unsealed.
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The party has announced several parliamentary actions, including calls for inquiries by portfolio committees on the presidency and police. Parliamentary questions will also be submitted to the minister of police and the president regarding why IPID’s October 2023 recommendations have been ignored.
ActionSA said an expanded Public Protector investigation is essential, particularly as 70% of parliament now forms part of the Government of National Unity and has “effectively abandoned its responsibility to hold the president to account.”
The Phala Phala case centres on a 2020 robbery at Ramaphosa’s game farm in Limpopo, where millions of rand in foreign currency was allegedly stolen. Questions have been raised about the handling of the incident and whether proper procedures were followed.
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