Pretoria - Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele has appealed to the South African public to exercise patience, and give embattled President Cyril Ramaphosa the opportunity to fully study the report of the panel chaired by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo which found that there may be a case to answer in relation to Phala Phala.
Addressing journalists in Western Cape, following a Cabinet meeting, Gungubele said the matter around the money at Phala Phala is a very complex issue.
“If you read the statement (issued by the Presidency), the President says I appreciate the predicament. I remember that word is included. The kind of decision that is taken by the president, it must be informed by a lot of things,” said Gungubele.
“Remember you are dealing here with a president who is subjected to processes for something that happened in his own house, his own property. I’m not sure if you understand this. We are not dealing with somebody who stole from your house.”
He said the issue at hand is quite unique.
“It is not an easy decision. I think let us (allow) the president to take an informed decision on the matter. Has got a history of having done that, and he is quite an intelligent president, by the way,” said Gungubele.
Meanwhile, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, a senior member of the ANC NEC (national executive committee), has called on Ramaphosa to step aside immediately following the damning findings by the independent panel which probed the Phala Phala scandal.
Dlamini Zuma made the call while speaking on the JJ Tabane show Power to Truth on eNCA Wednesday evening.
Dlamini Zuma’s call also comes amid mounting pressure for Ramaphosa to resign or face an impeachment process, having been found to have violated several sections of the country’s revered and sacred Constitution over how he handled the Phala Phala matter that dates back to February 2020.
Retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo’s three-member Independent Section 89 Panel found Ramaphosa had violated his oath of office in handling the break-in and theft of a huge amount of money in US dollars at his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo.
In a report, which Justice Ngcobo released to Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula on Wednesday morning but which was made public in the evening, the panel found that Ramaphosa had committed four serious violations and that there is prima facie evidence against him.
IOL