Bosasagate: Maimane writes to Zondo Commission requesting President Ramaphosa be subpoenaed to testify before 8 May
27 March 2019
The revelations emanating from testimony before the Zondo Commission into State Capture yesterday confirm that President Ramaphosa and his family are deeply embroiled in a corruption and bribery scandal involving Bosasa.
Former Bosasa auditor, Peet Venter, testified under oath that President Ramaphosa’s son received cash from Bosasa, and just this morning the President’s son has been exposed in the media as admitting to receiving over R2 million from Bosasa for “services rendered”. This is in addition to an amount that President Ramaphosa calls a R500 000 donation to his internal ANC Election Campaign. What is now clear is that Bosasa and the Ramaphosa’s are working together in multiple transactions.
It simply cannot be that money from Bosasa so freely flows to the Ramaphosa family, without scrutiny. The President must explain to the nation under oath the full extent of the now exposed business relationship between himself, his family, and Bosasa.
Therefore, as Leader of the Opposition of the Republic, I have today written directly to Deputy Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo, as chair of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, requesting that he act in the public interest and subpoena President Cyril Ramaphosa to testify before the Commission ahead of the 8 May Elections.
South Africa deserves answers and the Zondo Commission is uniquely placed to seek the truth on this matter.
Just yesterday the President’s Spokeswoman unequivocally committed the President to appear before the Commission. It is thus in the hands of the Commission to facilitate such.
Bosasa has spent 20 years profiting from bribing ANC politicians to capture government contracts worth billions of rands. It now appears the Watsons are to the Ramaphosas what the Guptas are to the Zumas.
President Ramaphosa and his family are not above the law. The South African electorate cannot go to the polls without knowing the full truth about a compromised President who is running to be re-elected.
These revelations have shattered the well-peddled myth that corruption in the ANC was simply a feature of Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family. A system of corruption that builds a wall between insiders and outsiders is alive and well within the ANC.
There remains a circle of secrecy between the Ramaphosa’s, ANC and Bosasa. It is crucial this secrecy is broken and South Africa is told the full truth about this corruption scandal involving the President.
Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 27 March 2019
