Information Regulator Approached for Crucial Phala Phala Evidence

ActionSA has approached the Information Regulator for access to crucial Phala Phala evidence that could potentially implicate President Cyril Ramaphosa in perjury.

In early June, ActionSA submitted a PAIA application to the Hawks requesting the affidavit signed by Ramaphosa following the theft at his Phala Phala game farm. ActionSA also applied for access to the financial records of Imanuwela David, the alleged mastermind behind the Phala Phala heist, after the NPA presented evidence in court showing more than R15 million in financial transactions, far exceeding the R8.7 million originally claimed to have been stolen from the President’s game farm. This raises the prospect that the amount stolen may have been more than R15 million, and not R8.7 million as initially declared. 

This PAIA application was rejected by SAPS, which argued that our intention was to use the documentation to pursue a criminal case and that the documents in question formed part of ongoing civil proceedings. Neither of these reasons is correct, nor do they constitute a lawful basis to refuse access to vital public documents that are clearly in the public interest. ActionSA lodged a formal appeal, to no avail, noting that SAPS had misconstrued our motives. Our application to the Information Regulator follows the rejection of that appeal.

ActionSA will not let this matter go. If these documents prove, as we believe they will, that the President declared a loss of only R8.7 million while the NPA has documents pointing to a far greater amount, it will demonstrate that the President misled the nation, breached his oath of office, defrauded law enforcement agencies, and acted in contravention of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

For years, institutions have shielded the President from accountability in this scandal. The IPID report into the Presidential Protection Unit, which remained shrouded in secrecy for years and which ActionSA unearthed in April, serves as a prime example of how public bodies meant to serve the public interest instead served the President. Now, the Impeachment Committee, which is meant to interrogate the President’s conduct, is chaired by the ANC’s nominated GNU partner. At every turn, the President’s allies within his own party and government have shielded him.

ActionSA did not take up seats in the GNU under this compromised President so that we could be co-opted into silence. We remain the opposition that South Africa needs after so many others stampeded for the publicly funded largesse of life in the South African Cabinet. We will pursue this matter as far as necessary to obtain these documents and ensure that they are available to assist the work of the Impeachment Committee.

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