EFF MP received money from Ramaphosa through his CR17 account

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has confirmed that one of its MPs, Tebogo Mokwele, received R40,000 from President Cyril Ramaphosa through his CR17 account.

According to the party, the MP confessed that she received the money from Ramaphosa following a death of a loved one.

It further called on other fighters to come clean if they also received money from Ramaphosa.

“Commissar Mokwele’s confirmation that she received the money after speaking to Ramaphosa is a confirmation that Ramaphosa was directly involved in the accounts that were paying money to different recipients in the CR17 campaign.”

The party leadership would meet to discuss what course of action to take against one of its own.

Journalist Oliver Meth also confirmed via Twitter his receipt of payments from the CR17 campaign, which resulted in Ramaphosa’s ascent to the ANC presidency.

“I’d like to place on record that I worked as a media consultant on the campaign and was paid for services rendered, as a freelancer,” Meth wrote on Sunday.

Emails from the CR17 campaign, since dubbed #RamaphosaLeaks on social media, were first mentioned by News24 in a story that included names of potential donors seemed to show that Ramaphosa’s claim that he was not involved in the running of the campaign or aware of its donors was at least partially untrue.

In a Sunday Independent article titled “How the CR17 campaign funds were channelled”, it was reported that the publication had seen the campaign’s bank records, as well as emails and financial statements which identified the beneficiaries of the “R1 billion” campaign fund, who according to the story were “politicians, campaign managers, and strategists” who “earned millions for their roles in Ramaphosa’s” successful CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency.

The report alleged that some of Ramaphosa’s main funders were numerous wealthy businesspeople, including mining magnate Nicky Oppenheimer, who reportedly gave R10 million; Pick n Pay founder Raymond Ackerman, who gave R1 million; and eNCA founder, director and owner of Hosken Consolidated Investments Johnny Copelyn, who donated an alleged R2 million. Former Absa CEO Maria Ramos was another alleged donor.

(Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde, Additional reporting by Daniel Friedman)

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