‘The country is asking for explanations’: Mbeki wants Hawks to conclude Phala Phala probe swiftly

Former president Thabo Mbeki says South Africans are justified in asking questions about the alleged theft of $4 million (about R63 million) in cash at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm in Limpopo.

Mbeki says he hopes that the Hawks, which are investigating the robbery, will move with speed to conclude their investigations.

“President Ramaphosa has said ‘let’s allow the law to take its course’ and I sympathise with him.

“I hope that the Hawks will move on the matter speedily because I’m quite certain, from what I can see, the country is asking for many, many explanations about many things. And I’m quite sure that the legal process will help us to provide these answers,” he said.

The former president made the remarks to the media on Monday in Johannesburg on the sidelines of his 80^th birthday celebrations.

Farmgate scandal

Ramaphosa has increasingly come under public pressure to come clean on the robbery at his Phala Phala game farm two years ago, after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal complaint against him of money laundering, kidnapping and corruption.

ALSO READ: ‘Criminal case against Ramaphosa meant to block his re-election for second term’

Fraser alleged that the president was involved in an elaborate cover-up of the crime after criminals – allegedly working in cahoots with his domestic worker – broke into his property and stole millions of US dollars in cash.

He further claimed that the suspects were subsequently kidnapped, interrogated and bribed to keep quiet.

While Ramaphosa said he would cooperate with investigations, he denied any criminality on his part and maintained that the crime was reported to the Presidential Protection Unit.

State capture report

Mbeki also weighed in on the release of the fifth and final instalment of the state capture commission’s report.

READ MORE: Jacob Zuma and Arthur Fraser worked to keep each other out of prison – Zondo

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the chairperson of the commission, handed the report to Ramaphosa last week at the Union Buildings, in Pretoria.

The report made damning findings against the governing ANC and several of its senior members, finding that the party – under former president Jacob Zuma – “permitted, supported and enabled corruption and state capture” by the controversial Gupta brothers.

Mbeki said the findings of the Zondo commission were concerning and the ANC needed to do an introspection of its role in enabling state capture.

“The ANC has got a particular responsibility because all of these things happened as a result of misgovernance,” Mbeki said.

“The ANC was the government and so it’s got to take responsibility to look at itself and see what went wrong with it, so that kind of thing could never happen.”

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