The South African presidency affirmed that President Cyril Ramaphosa did nothing wrong and said it had received a report from the graft ombudsman regarding its investigation into the theft of foreign currency from his game farm.
According to a statement posted on the organization’s Twitter account, the Public Protector gave the parties involved 10 days to respond after submitting its preliminary findings to them on March 10. It didn’t give specifics about the conclusions.
“We take note of the report, said Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for Ramaphosa, in a tweet on Saturday. “As we’ve already said, the president did not engage in any wrongdoing and did not break any laws while in office. The president, on the other hand, was a victim of a crime, which he properly reported to the appropriate authorities.
Ramaphosa, 70, thought about leaving office in December after an advisory panel determined that he might have violated the constitution in how he handled the break-in, which resulted in the theft of at least $580,000 in cash stashed in couches at his Phala Phala game farm. Former spy chief Arthur Fraser, a critic of the president, first revealed the incident in July and claimed that the crime hadn’t been properly reported.
The president and the organizations that manage his cattle business were found to be in compliance with tax laws by South Africa’s revenue authority earlier this week. The central bank of South Africa is still looking into possible foreign exchange control violations.
