Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa addresses believers during the beatification Mass of Benedict Daswa on September 13, 2015 in Thohoyandou, South Africa. Daswa, who was stoned and burnt to death for his Catholic beliefs, was declared martyr during a beatification mass service in Limpopo yesterday. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Sandile Ndlovu)
It emerged on Friday evening that Sunday Independent editor Steven Motale was in possession of numerous emails from Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s private email accounts possibly linking him to as many as eight different women.
If they are indeed authentic, the emails were either leaked from Ramaphosa’s server or were obtained through a hack. His office has said they were not obtained legally.
Ramaphosa’s office, through acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale, released a statement on Friday to say it was “aware” of social media messages, “which take the form of media enquiries from a Sunday newspaper, that make various claims about Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s personal life”.
Though Seale’s statement referred to the fact that the newspaper queries in question were being circulated on social media, it did not speak to whether it is in fact true that The Sunday Independent is working on a story.
The queries are real, however, and were sent by Motale.
In his statement, Seale appeared to verify that the emails were Ramaphosa’s “personal email correspondence” and they were not lawfully obtained.
“There is no doubt that these messages have been circulated as part of a deliberate campaign to smear the person of the deputy president. They are a transparent attempt to distort personal email correspondence that could only have been obtained through criminal means,” said Seale.
“The deputy president will in due course release a detailed statement on the allegations contained in the messages.”
The emails in question are not from an official government server but are instead from private Gmail accounts not obviously featuring Ramaphosa’s name.
Questions Motale posed to Ramaphosa would indicate the newspaper is asking the future presidential hopeful about alleged extramarital affairs with eight different women, one of them allegedly being a doctor who was also treating him medically.
Ramaphosa’s current wife, Tshepo Motsepe, is also a medical doctor.
The Sunday Independent also appears to have sent questions to some of the other women allegedly involved in the emails to ask them about their relationship with Ramaphosa.
The names of eight women were listed.
When The Citizen called Seale earlier on Friday, he made it clear that they were still investigating the allegations, but he seemed confident they would turn out to be without basis.
Here are some of the tweets about the matter:
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