President Cyril Ramaphosa has been accused of gender-based violence. Photo: GCIS / Flickr
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been accused of gender-based violence. Photo: GCIS / Flickr
The unexplained presence of millions of dollars at Cyril Ramaphosa‘s farm in Limpopo has sparked one of the biggest scandals of his presidency so far – and political opponents are now calling for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to look further into the matter.
Cyril Ramaphosa and the hidden dollar bills – what’s going on?
Ex-SSA boss Arthur Fraser launched criminal charges against the president last week, citing a trove of evidence including photographic and video-recorded content. Ramaphosa is accused of hiding as much as $80 million in cash at his property in Bela-Bela.
A robbery which took place at the farm alerted the authorities to the presence of the dollar bills. Ramaphosa has since argued that the cash is reserved for a transaction involving game stock, and vowed that he had ‘never stolen from anyone’.
‘Do SARS know about this’? Steenhuisen twists the knife
However, as DA leader John Steenhuisen points out, the issue was never about thieving from people – it boils down to the fact that huge amounts of a foreign currency are sitting idle in a home belonging to a serving president. Therefore, Steenhuisen wants clarity on SARS’ involvement.
“The President is being completely disingenuous and it’s not going to help his situation. Nobody has accused the President of stealing as he said in Limpopo yesterday, this is clearly an attempt to obfuscate the issue.”
“We need to know if the money was declared for SARS purposes. As the presidents own spokesperson indicated, it was for a transaction involving the sale or purchase of game – were the necessary SARS declarations made?”
John Steenhuisen
- UPDATE: John Steenhuisen has since submitted enquiries to SARS and the SA Reserve Bank respectively
SARS and the South African Reserve Bank must urgently investigate the tax implications and potential money laundering related to the alleged $4 million theft from President Ramaphosa's farm.
— John Steenhuisen MP (@jsteenhuisen) June 6, 2022
I have sent letters to both these institutions. The President must play open cards. pic.twitter.com/oLhoFZUdlj
Cyril Ramaphosa could soon be probed by SARS
Herman Mashaba has also confirmed that he’ll be trying to force the hand of SARS in the days ahead. The ActionSA leader will write to the agency, asking them to confirm if they knew about Cyril Ramaphosa’s wads and wads of US dollars.
“How does a President of a country deal in such high volume of CASH, and fail to report matter to the criminal justice system he is in charge of? I will be writing letters to SARS and SARB to confirm their knowledge of existence of volume of US Dollars in South Africa.”
Herman Mashaba
