Maimane will report Ramaphosa to public protector over Bosasa

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane and the DA’s Gauteng premier candidate Solly Msimanga went to the Union Buildings on Thursday in an attempt to discover whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has publicly declared a conflict of interest, after his son was found to have received payments from controversial facilities management company Bosasa.

According to Maimane, the president should have publicly declared his conflict of interest for the 2018/19 financial year, subsequent to his election in February 2018, but has thus far failed to do so.

“He hasn’t declared anything, he hasn’t even declared a pension as required by law. I wonder what is he going to do after May 8 if he doesn’t have a pension,” Maimane asked.

“There is a web of corruption that exists between politicians and their children … The politicians get into the state and give contracts to their children. We saw it with Duduzane’s father and now we are seeing it again with Andile’s father,” he added.

“This is disappointing coming from a man who claims to promote transparency and accountability. The Public Protector must investigate this failure to declare a conflict of interest.”

He said Ramaphosa had even failed to declare that his son is getting business through Bosasa nor any shareholding through Bosasa.

This after a donation of R 500,000 was made to Ramaphosa’s campaign for the ANC presidency. The president initially said it was for services Andile provided as a consultant.

The president is required by the Executive Ethics Code to disclose the details of all his financial interests to the Secretary of Cabinet, Dr Cassius Lubisi.

“I can confirm that President Ramaphosa has failed to declare the clear conflict of interest that exists between himself, his son Andile, and the corrupt systems management company Bosasa,” Maimane said.

The president has breached the ethics code, Maimane believes, and he will now approach the public protector to formally include the omission by the president.

“Section 2(3)(d) of the Executive Ethics Code is clear that executive members may not use their position or any information entrusted to them, to enrich themselves or improperly benefit any other person,” Maimane says.

“The conflict of interest is clear to see. In the lead up to Ramaphosa’s election as ANC President, Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson gave a R500,000 donation to Mr Ramaphosa’s campaign. Once Ramaphosa was elected, his son, Andile, earned at least R2 million rand from Bosasa for strategic and financial advisory services – emanating from a contractual agreement the President told Parliament he had seen,” Maimane exclaimed.

“Moreover, one of his first acts as President was to appoint Arthur Fraser as the Director-General of Correctional Services. This allowed a man with a questionable track record to oversee the adjudication of lucrative tenders in a government department that Bosasa continues to do much work for.”

“We cannot ignore the fact that Bosasa is a company that has been bribing ANC politicians for the last two decades. Bosasa contracts with the ANC government total over R10 billion. Like Zuma-Gupta, the Ramaphosa-Bosasa relationship follows the standard ANC triangle of corruption. The ANC in government gives lucrative tenders to connected cronies who bribe officials, which in return funds the ANC.

“The DA will punish corruption with 15 years in prison, not reward it with another 5 years in the Presidency. South Africans have the power to bring this change at the ballot boxes on 8 May.”

(Compiled by Gopolang Chawane)

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.