Johannesburg - The DA said on Monday the US dollars hidden inside a couch on the Phala Phala farm owned by President Cyril Ramaphosa were not declared to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) upon entering South Africa.
The DA obtained this information directly from Sars following a request submitted in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
Towards the end of last year, Ramaphosa claimed he had received $580 000 (R10.57 million) from one Hazim Mustafa, a Sudanese national, as payment for cattle as part of a legitimate business transaction.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said, in turn, Mustafa claimed in a media interview he had complied with the requirement to declare the money to Sars officials at OR Tambo airport upon entering South Africa.
Steenhuisen said the Sars customs policy on excess currency stipulates "every person must declare" foreign currency upon arrival in the country. Failure to adhere to this provision is an offence that may be criminally prosecuted.
To verify Ramaphosa and Mustafa’s claims this was a legitimate business transaction using foreign currency that had legally entered the country, Steenhuisen, on December 7, 2022, submitted a PAIA request to Sars to obtain the "relevant currency declaration forms" that Mustafa submitted to declare the $580 000 he was bringing into the country.
The DA said it received Sars’ response on Monday morning, with the revenue service confirming "the record does not exist and/or cannot be found."
The party said this was accompanied by an affidavit from Siyabonga Nkabinde, a legal specialist in Sars’ corporate legal services department.
In his affidavit, Nkabinde confirmed "On or around January 17, 2023, I commenced engagements with various business units within Sars that I believed may be in the custody, be in possession, or have knowledge of the record requested and 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."
Steenhuisen said the response by Sars meant they now knew Ramaphosa had hidden "dirty dollars", which had entered the country illegally, inside a couch on his game farm.
"It renders Ramaphosa’s claim that these funds were merely the proceeds of a business transaction impossible to believe because legitimate business transactions are usually not hidden from Sars inside a couch.
"It now seems more likely than ever that Ramaphosa may have been in possession of these dirty dollars for a corrupt, illicit, or criminal purpose," said Steenhuisen.
He said the information also added further credence to the findings of the Section 89 panel’s report there existed “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. Steenhuisen said the ANC, last year, abused its majority in the National Assembly to reject the panel’s report, and Ramaphosa vowed to overturn it in court.
The Constitutional Court last week denied him direct access to challenge the panel’s findings.
"Should Ramaphosa turn to another court in his desperate bid to avoid accountability for his possession of dirty dollars and the subsequent cover-up of the theft at Phala Phala, the DA will introduce this new information from Sars as evidence that the panel’s report must stand."
"We will also submit this information to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as yet another reason why she must accede to the DA’s request for the urgent establishment of an ad hoc committee to fully expose the truth behind the President’s dirty dollars," said Steenhuisen.
The EFF said it had noted the response by Sars to a request to access its records, in which Sars has confirmed that there was no declaration of the 580 000 US dollars that were illicitly brought into South Africa and given to Ramaphosa’s employee at Phala Phala Farm.
"The revelation by Sars is damning in that it refutes the concocted lies of Mustafa, who claimed on local and international news platforms that he declared the money he smuggled to Ramaphosa at OR Tambo International Airport. Sars has today confirmed that no such declaration exists, exposing Mustafa as being part of an orchestrated attempt to mislead South Africa and bury the Phala Phala Farm scandal," said EF national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo.
He further said: "It is now an undeniable fact that at least 580 000 US dollars were brought into South Africa illegally and were not declared to Sars or the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). It is further undeniable that the money that was supposedly for the purchase of buffalo on Phala Phala Farm was laundered through a falsified transaction because the buffalo that were supposedly bought never left Phala Phala Farm".
Thambo said the lies and delay tactics of Ramaphosa and the institutions that ought to counter financial crimes in South Africa are failing dismally in the face of the truth. "Sars' confirmation of the non-existence of a declaration by Mustafa of the money that was given to Ramaphosa gives credence to the suspicions that Ramaphosa never declared the money he placed in sofas and mattresses to SARS himself because he knew the money was never declared once it entered South Africa," he said.
Thambo said this means that Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, actively aided and participated in tax evasion.
The party again called for Ramaphosa to be fired immediately.
"The EFF reiterates its call for the immediate resignation of Ramaphosa for having failed dismally to lead South Africa and for being a certified constitutional delinquent." The Phala Phala Farm scandal is the greatest violation of South Africa’s laws and undermining of our economy, and it is a contributing factor to the greylisting of our country by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)."
"Ramaphosa is a criminal, and if he does not resign as the lies of Phala Phala unravel, then the people of South Africa must stand up on March 20, 2023, and force him to leave the office of the President, which he continues to disgrace and destroy," Thambo said.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, was reached for comment but had not yet responded.
The Star