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- Elements of the versions offered to the Public Protector by President Cyril Ramaphosa and senior police officials are likely to raise further questions.
- Millions of rands in cash, dollars that were stashed under a sofa cushion, were stolen from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in February 2020.
- But the amount claimed by Ramaphosa to have been in the house and even a claim from one of the thieves suggests that far more money was taken than what the president is willing to admit – casting doubt on not only his version, but also confirmation by the buyer of Ramaphosa’s buffalo.
In the sweltering heat on Christmas Day in 2019, Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa arrived at the gate of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm near Bela-Bela in Limpopo with two canvass bags stuffed with millions of rands worth of dollars.
He happened to have heard that this farm was selling buffalo, and the man who apparently does not even own a farm of his own, travelled two hours north of Johannesburg where he had landed at OR Tambo International two days before to look at the buffalo after traversing approximately 10 kilometers of dusty, bumpy gravel road.
READ | Missing docket and a mystery phone call: How the police bungled Phala Phala investigations
After looking at some of the buffalo up for sale, he decided on the spot to shell out $580 000 (roughly R8 million at the time) to buy 20 of the beasts with money that he previously told the media he had brought with him to buy a house.
This story, first told by Ramaphosa to the Public Protector and since corroborated and expanded on by Mustafa and a farm manager, Sylvester Ndlovu, is what the president wants the country to believe about how it came to be that huge sums of money were stuffed under a sofa cushion at Phala Phala – and later stolen by a group of Namibian thieves whose exploits in the bushland of the Waterberg on a dark night in February 2020 led to a national scandal.
A report by the Public Protector that clears Ramaphosa of wrongdoing was circulated to all the affected parties on Friday. They will have 10 days to make further submissions before a final version is released to the public.
Ramaphosa knew for at least 45 days that the money was at Phala Phala before it was stolen on 9 February 2020, having confirmed he was briefed when he visited the farm on 26 December 2019 before departing to Cape Town for a holiday.
But the buffalo remain on the farm more than two years after Mustafa handed the cash in two canvass bags to Sylvester Ndlovu, the farm manager at Phala Phala.
The president’s version as set out in the Public Protector report is silent on this aspect of the alleged deal. Ndlovu, News24 previously reported, surfaced at a job on a private game farm partly owned by Arthur Fraser’s niece.
Fraser, the former State Security Agency director general who first reported the matter to police in June 2022, was accused by Ramaphosa in his submissions to the Public Protector of making the disclosures at that time in an attempt to influence the outcome of the ANC elective conference in December 2022.
Fraser claimed in his initial report that he was acting in the national interest.
News24 investigations have shown that the largest problem with the president’s version however, is the sum of money he alleges was taken – around R8 million in dollars – and this amount barely covers the amount the suspects spent on luxury cars alone.
Unexplained largesse
A key suspect in the burglary has been alleged to be Imanuwela David, a Namibian man who is suspected of being the mastermind behind the burglary. David and the other alleged suspects – Erkki Shikongo, Petrus Afrikaner, Urbanus “Darren” Lomboleni Shaumbwako and Petrus Muhekeni – were all named by Fraser in his report to police in June 2022.
News24 was able to trace the men, none of whom wished to speak with reporters, and their spending spree in the aftermath of the burglary and confirmed they had led a modest, if not poor lifestyle.
ALSO READ | Phala Phala ‘thief’ led luxury life of diamond teeth, exclusive cars… and SAPS did nothing
David, who was arrested in Namibia after illegally entering that country in June 2020, was linked to string of extravagant purchases before he left the country – and after he was deported back to South Africa after serving time in jail in November 2020.
News24 was also able to verify two property purchases linked to Shikongo in Cape Town, who bought a R300 000 property in Kraaifontein in July 2020. In February 2021, Shikongo paid R1.7 million for an upmarket apartment in Blouberg Strand.
Sources in the complex where he bought the property told of Shokongo arriving with no furniture and two bags – and shortly thereafter he was seen driving several luxury vehicles, including a Range Rover, a white Mercedes Benz and two different Golf GTIs, black and red in colour.
According to sources who worked at M&S Motorlink, a car dealership in Johannesburg, David first purchased a car in March 2020, just weeks after the burglary, and continued to buy numerous luxury vehicles over several months.
“He bought six cars from us and he only worked in cash. When he bought a VW Golf 7R, he paid with $10 000 bundles. They still had the paper straps on them,” the source said at the time.
Between March and June 2020, David allegedly purchased these cars:
- Blue VW Golf R7
- Blue VW Polo 1.2 TSI
- White BMW M5
- White Mercedes G63
- Grey Mercedes G63
- Grey Porsche Carrera
“He wanted a G63 so we sourced one from a dealership in Vereeniging. Within three days, he had smashed it and came in looking for another. We managed to find one for him in Johannesburg and he took that as a replacement,” he added.
The collective value of these vehicles is approximately R10 million, based on conservative estimates on year models that appear similar to those purchased – well above the R8 million claimed by Ramaphosa and Mustafa was at the farm.
David paid R900 000 and traded the Polo TSI in on the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, which also featured in a picture on his Instagram page together with the grey G63.
In April 2021, David paid R250 000 for a pair of diamond studded grillz – mouth jewellery made popular by hip hop artists.
In a recording of David being questioned by unknown individuals, allegedly shortly after a raid on a property where he was staying in Cape Town, he confirms they took $800 000, around R11.4 million at average exchange rates for the time of the burglary, and that they had left some cash behind.
This sum of money claimed by David includes verified purchases of jewellery, property and vehicles, as well as expenditure by the alleged suspects – who all had a relatively modest lifestyle prior to the burglary – spent in excess of R15 million in just a few months, with David alone having spent at least R12 million.
The fake passport
Further adding confusion to the debacle is a claim by senior police officials in statements to the Public Protector that the South African passport David was in possession of when he was arrested in Namibia on 13 June 2020, was fake.
David was also in possession of a Rolex watch, the value of which could not be immediately determined, as well as at least $1 100 in cash including four cell phones.
Colonel Mohamed Hyder, in his capacity as the SAPS’ international liaison officer coordinator at Interpol in Pretoria received two reports and one request for information from the official liaison officer to Namibia, Colonel Jorine Edwards.
Hyder told the Public Protector that all the reports only revealed that David had gained unlawful entry to Namibia and had not mentioned that he was a suspect in a robbery at the president’s farm.
He also stated that he confirmed with the Border Integrity Intelligence Centre that the passport that had been seized and photographed by the Namibian authorities, was fake and that due to this, he was unable to create a criminal profile on David to share with the Namibian authorities.
But this version does not address the fact that the passport also contains David’s ID number, and News24 was able to trace David initially using this same ID number. The Public Protector report also does not raise any problems with Hyder’s version in this regard.
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