South Africa’s Corruption Watchdog to Subpoena President Ramaphosa Over Farm Scandal

South Africa’s Public Protector’s Office in Pretoria said on Tuesday that she would invoke “subpoena powers” to get testimony from President Cyril Ramaphosa after he refused to give requested answers about the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala game reserve.

"We confirm that the President had until July 18, 2022, to respond to the allegations letter of June 07, 2022, after his previous request to have the initial return date of June 22, 2022, extended," Oupa Segalwe, a spokesperson for the corruption watchdog, told Africa News.

“We intend to subpoena the information we require from the president,” he added.

The scandal began last month when Arthur Fraser, a former director-general of the State Security Agency under Ramaphosa's predecessor Jacob Zuma, filed a police report regarding an incident that allegedly occurred in February 2020.

According to Fraser, robbers broke into Ramphosa’s Phala Phala farm, an 11,000-acre private game reserve in northeastern South Africa’s Limpopo Province. The burglars made away with between $4-8 million in cash that was hidden in furniture, Fraser says, and Ramaphosa organized their kidnapping and bribery to keep quiet about the heist. He also claims Ramaphosa hid the crime from the police by not filing a report, which is itself a crime.

The South African president has quibbled about the amount of cash involved but says he keeps large amounts of it around in order to buy animals. He claims he reported the theft to the head of his VIP Protection unit, who was the one that failed to inform the police.

Ramaphosa hasn’t been charged with a crime, but has been accused by Fraser of bribery, concealing a crime, and could potentially be investigated for failing to report foreign currency. The scandal has put even greater pressure on the African National Congress (ANC), Ramaphosa’s ruling party, which shows signs of fracturing once again. It was Zuma's resignation as ANC leader and South African president in 2018 that allowed Ramaphosa to become president.

It’s just the latest political scandal to rock South Africa, coming after Zuma's arrest last year for contempt of court and sentence of 15 months in jail, which he is serving in house arrest. He has separately pleaded not guilty to accusations of taking bribes from French defense firm Thales in 1999.

Zuma has evaded prosecution for more than 20 years thanks to what observers call his “Stalingrad defense,” using every method available to him to delay a trial, which still has not begun.