Unconvincing Ramaphosa should have opened up about Phala Phala issue

Growing up in the ’60s in Salisbury, Port Elizabeth, before the Group Areas Act – which banished blacks from their fertile land to life in matchbox houses called townships – being rich was determined by the size of your farm and the number of cattle you owned.

Fresh milk from cows, dung used to beautify rondavels and an abundance of vegetables, was how we lived. In typical isiXhosa expression, you would hear my dad talking to friends over coffee, saying: “Ukuba nenkomo, kukuba nebhanki ehambayo (owning a cow is similar to owning a mobile bank).”

I later understood the true meaning of the expression: whenever he needed some serious cash to buy farming implements, service his van or pay off some loan, he would take one of his big bulls and sell it at a profit. This would usually be done privately.

Selling cows privately was – and still is – an acceptable practice, with the transaction recorded with a signed piece of paper to avert any possible trouble from police at a roadblock. Declaring that sale to the taxman was then too sophisticated for me to understand – something I had to learn later in life.

ALSO READ: Phala Phala: Ramaphosa has until 8 September to respond to Reserve Bank

Like my father, President Cyril Ramaphosa owns cattle – his being the most prized bulls, only afforded by those with deep pockets. Nothing wrong with that, because they were not purchased using taxpayers’ money.

What makes the nation more interested in his cows is due to him being a head of state – rendering whatever he does a matter of public interest. Were he an ordinary farmer or villager in Limpopo, would we bother? Owning cows and game is no crime anywhere in the world.

ANC chair and Cabinet minister Gwede Mantashe makes no secret about the flock of sheep on his farm in Cala in the Eastern Cape. Some high-profile National Party ministers also owned farms and cows.

What has raised the eyebrows, though, has been the burglary at the Ramaphosa game farm two years ago, where millions are said to have been stolen. As president and a public figure, we expected him to know better about the importance of declaring any transaction and profits to the SA Revenue Service.

Addressing a question and answer session in the National Assembly over Phala Phala, Ramaphosa preferred not to open up – merely pointing enraged opposition MPs to an investigation currently in progress. He was unconvincing.

Did it have to get to this? Being proactive and taking the nation into his confidence on what actually happened at Phala Phala – information he would have already shared with police investigators – would have been sufficient.

ALSO READ: Fury as Ramaphosa stays mum on Phala Phala farm saga

Staying mum has raised suspicion that Ramaphosa could have been on the wrong side of the law – a matter, he says, that has been exploited by “people merely seeking a political mileage”. Political opponents – some from within his party – are far from being family or friend.

In the real world of modern politics, these are people out to exploit every leadership weakness he displays, with more pressure to be piled up – aimed at forcing him to leave public office. Remember Boris Johnson.