Phala Phala: EFF to take Reserve Bank report on review

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has announced that the party intends approaching the courts to challenge the South African Reserve Bank’s report on the Phala Phala scandal.

Malema held a media briefing on Sunday, 27 August 2023, on outcomes of the EFF’s Central Command Team meeting in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg.

After approximately a year of investigating the sale of Ankole cattle on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm, the SARB said it could not conclude whether the president or Ntaba Nyoni Estates, which owns the Phala Phala farm, violated foreign exchange laws in the transaction.

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PHALA PHALA SAGA: EFF VS RAMAPHOSA

Julius Malema says the EFF will now take the report into Phala Phala under judicial review as it takes issue with the Reserve Bank’s finding.

The party maintains that the Central Bank is being used to exonerate Ramaphosa.

“In their pathetic and poor attempt to cleanse Ramaphosa of the Phala Phala crimes, the SARB has unwittingly confirmed our suspicions that there was never a transaction or intention to have a legal transaction. Instead, the intention was to launder money through Phala Phala, as we have consistently maintained that Ramaphosa uses his farming business as a front for money laundering,” the EFF said.

ALSO READ: Phala Phala saga: Public Protector to subpoena Ramaphosa

Back in June 2022, former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges against Ramaphosa, claiming that he concealed the theft of R62 million that had been kept on his farm in Phala Phala, Limpopo two years before. He also alleges that the suspects were kidnapped and interrogated, before being offered money for their silence. Ramaphosa subsequently admitted there was a robbery on his property, but denied being criminally liable and says the monies stolen were proceeds from the sale of cattle on his farm.

As previously reported, Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa confirmed that he purchased the animals in cash over the festive period in 2019. He told Sky News that he was in Limpopo to celebrate Christmas and his wife’s birthday and brought the cash through the airport because “$580 000 is nothing for a businessman like [him].”

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