EFF wants inquiry into Ramaphosa ‘collaborating with apartheid cops’

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are calling for a commission of inquiry into the president allegedly working with the apartheid police’s Special Branch in the early 1970s.

The allegation was made in the National Assembly on Wednesday by Cope leader Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota during the debate on Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, and received a standing ovation from EFF members.

Lekota accused Ramaphosa of writing to apartheid police in a bid to escape imprisonment on Robben Island.

“The challenge we had to respond to was [at] that time, and you, with us in detention, when it was difficult. You wrote to the Special Branch [police] that we put communist ideas in your head. In doing so, you condemned us to the Special Branch. I say this to you because the Special Branch rewarded you … and they sent you home, and we headed to Robben Island,” he said.

ALSO READ: Lekota accuses Ramaphosa of being rewarded for ‘selling out’ during apartheid

The party said in a statement tonight: “The EFF takes seriously, the allegations made by the leader of COPE Mosiuoa Lekota that President Ramaphosa collaborated with apartheid Special Branch and sold out his comrades, in order to avoid imprisonments around 1972-1974.

“As a result, the CIC Julius Malema has written to President Ramaphosa to allow the Chief Justice to appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate these allegations in order to clear the matter once and for all. For a president who believes in openness, accountability, and transparency, we expect that Ramaphosa will not refuse such an inquiry to take place.

“The CIC Malema has particularly recommended that the judge who must preside over this inquiry must be appointed by the Chief Justice in the same way that Justice Zondo was appointed to preside over the State Capture inquiry. This will avoid an obvious conflict of interest.

“Our country cannot be led by a person who collaborated with the Special Branch to condemn Freedom Fighters into imprisonment, and possible loss of life,” the statement said.

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