Ramaphosa only has himself to blame

If President Cyril Ramaphosa does resign over the Phala Phala debacle – or if he is forced to undergo an impeachment process – he only has himself to blame.

When the saga of the burglary emerged earlier this year, thanks to deeply faction-loyal Arthur Fraser, Ramaphosa made no attempt to clear the air by explaining what exactly had happened.

Hiding behind the excuse of “allowing the law to take its course”, Ramaphosa looked no different than his arch-political enemy, Jacob Zuma, in ducking and diving to avoid accountability.

Seeing this behaviour from a man who had proclaimed cleaning up government as the hill he was prepared to die on, made him look shady to say the least. No smoke without fire was worrying even Ramaphosa’s most ardent supporters.

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And, even though the panel report released on Wednesday was far from perfect, it still left no doubt that the president has a case to answer.

Perhaps he has not betrayed his oath of office, or even the constitution – at least in an egregious way – but at the minimum he has a lot of explaining to do.

How was there an amount of $580 000 in cash at the ranch in the first place? Who was the mysterious foreigner who brought it? Why was it later hidden in a couch by an employee? Was the existence of the cash reported to the Reserve Bank or to the South African Revenue Service?

Was the burglary and theft of the money correctly reported to the police? How much did Ramaphosa know about what followed?

These are all questions one should not be asking of a president committed to ridding the country of sleaze and corruption.

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Ramaphosa has let himself down by damaging his legacy as a “good guy” and let the country down by leaving it on the verge of a constitutional crisis.