Statement of The Presidency on leaked bank statements
10 August 2019
The Presidency has been made aware that confidential banking information of the contributors to and recipients from the CR17 campaign has been leaked to the media. The information, supposedly held only by the Public Protector, includes bank statements of third parties, which record private transactions and which are strictly confidential.
The Presidency notes with grave concern what amounts to a violation of the constitutionally enshrined right to privacy. This is all the more troubling as it seems clear that this information had been, from the first instance, obtained in an illegal manner.
The legal representatives of President Cyril Ramaphosa have requested the Court that certain information contained in the record of the Public Protector’s investigation into allegations against the President not be made public. This request is pending a determination on whether the information was obtained lawfully and whether it was lawfully sourced in relation to the complaint under investigation.
It should be noted that, should the request be granted, nothing prevents the Court from deciding, once it has established the lawfulness of the source of documents and the appropriateness of it being included in the record, that some or all of the information should be made public.