Bosasa donation is a blow to Cyril’s reputation, says analyst

Undertakings by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign team to return the R500,000 said to have been used to fund his 2017 ANC presidential race will be insignificant until Ramaphosa humbles himself before the party’s integrity committee, according to political analyst Susan Booysen.

The funding was made by African Global Operations, the facilities management company formerly known as Bosasa.

The integrity committee, an internal ANC structure led by party veterans, has been set up to ensure that its cadres accused of corrupt practices or for having brought the organisation into disrepute, account for their actions.

Ramaphosa’s team over the weekend claimed that the president was unaware that the fund had gone towards strengthening his presidential bid to win the fiercely contested campaign against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma at the party’s 54th ANC national conference at Nasrec last year.

READ MORE: Ramaphosa phoned Gigaba and ‘ordered’ him to resign – report

According to the president’s campaign team, Ramaphosa was neither part of fundraising, nor did he have a record of who made donations.

The controversy was recently sparked by a parliamentary question from DA leader Mmusi Maimane.

He told the president he had evidence of a questionable R500,000 payment made to Ramaphosa’s son, Andile – an accusation Ramaphosa denied.

“It was brought to my attention a long time ago and I proceeded to ask my son what this was all about,” the president said.

“He runs a financial consultancy business and he consults on a number of companies and one of those is Bosasa, where he provides services of entrepreneurship, particularly on the procurement process, advising both local and international companies,” was how Ramaphosa had responded to Maimane’s question.

Booysen, who is research director at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, described the funding saga as “a big political and governance issue”.

“In an ideal world, President Ramaphosa should subject himself to the ANC integrity committee,” said Booysen.

“The position of the president has been affected and it is at a point of fragility – a major issue for the ANC and Ramaphosa personally,” she said.

“The return of the R500,000 will merely be symbolic but will not make this go away because people are in shock following these revelations.”

Booysen said should Ramaphosa accede to political pressure from opposition parties and step down, the ANC would implode.

She said: “This has severe and serious implications for the ANC.

“What cannot be understandable is that the opposition parties are starting to cry foul only now.”

Booysen said the passage of legislation to ensure that all political party funding came under legal scrutiny was crucial.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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