By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today confirmed that the $580 000 paid in cash to Phala Phala farm of President Cyril Ramaphosa was not declared to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) upon entering South Africa.
DA leader John Steenhuisen filed a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in December 2022. Steenhuisen asked for a copy of the declaration form after the Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa produced a document that he showed journalists in an interview with Sky News, but would not hand it over.
On 5 March, SARS responded to Steenhuisen, stating that the tax service was satisfied that after it had taken reasonable steps to find the record, it concluded that the record either did not exist, or it could not be found.
In terms of PAIA, SARS also attached an affidavit by the responsible official, in this case legal specialist: corporate legal services Siyabonga Nkabinde, who had searched for the records.
“On or around 17 January 2023, I commenced engagements with relevant various business units within SARS that I believed may be in custody of and/or be in possession of and/or have knowledge of the record requested,” Nkabinde’s affidavit read.
“[I] was advised that pursuant to the search for the record in various SARS Passenger Processing Systems, the record could not be found and/or may not be in existence,” the affidavit continued.
Mustafa claimed the document was a copy of the declaration he completed upon landing at OR Tambo International Airport. Mustafa said he handed over $580 000 in cash to an employee of Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm on Christmas Day in 2019.
The money was handed to Sylvester Ndlovu who, Ramaphosa has claimed, moved the money out of a safe in the main building on the farm and stashed it under sofa cushions in the president’s house.
In the early hours of 9 February 2020, burglars gained access to the property and made off with an undisclosed amount of dollars. The burglary was kept secret until July 2022, when former State Security Agency director-general Arthur Fraser reported a criminal case to Rosebank police station and accused Ramaphosa and his head of security, Major General Wally Rhoode, of a cover-up.
The official opposition party believes this information adds further credence to the findings of the Section 89 panel’s report that there exists prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have violated the Constitution, the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, as well as his oath of office.
However, the Constitutional Court last week denied him direct access to challenge the panel’s findings.
And the DA says should Ramaphosa turn to another court in his desperate bid to avoid accountability for his possession of dirty dollars and the subsequent coverup of the theft at Phala Phala, they will introduce this new information from SARS as evidence that the panel’s report must stand.
They will also submit this information to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as yet another reason why she must accede to their request for the urgent establishment of an ad hoc committee to fully expose the truth behind the President’s dirty dollars.