STATE CAPTURE REDUX

Can South Africa’s Ramaphosa forget about the ‘Farmgate’ scandal?

By Ralph Mathekga

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Posted on July 7, 2023 10:08

© President Cyril Ramaphosa’s name is cleared, but his worries may not be over. (REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko) — President Cyril Ramaphosa’s name is cleared, but his worries may not be over. (REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko)

Striding into a press conference this week and dismissing the idea that the African National Congress could lose next year’s elections as ‘silly’, President Cyril Ramaphosa is on a roll.

Part of that is due to his trip to the global finance summit in Paris to meet France’s President Emmanuel Macron and China’s new premier Li Qiang, and reports of an upturn in GDP growth and some respite in South Africa’s timetable of power cuts.

But the prime reason is that South Africa’s acting public protector, Kholeka Gcaleka, has just cleared Ramaphosa of wrongdoing in the scandal that blew up after thieves stole hundreds of thousands of US dollars stashed in a sofa in his Phala Phala game farm.

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