South African President Cyril Ramaphosa looks on prior to his address to the ILO International Labour Conference on June 10, 2019 in Geneva. – The head of the ILO urged the agency to approve new rules to stop violence and harassment in the workplace, which have faced resistance from employer representatives. ILO director general made the call as he opened a congress marking the United Nations labour body’s 100th anniversary. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
Leaked emails reveal who funded CR17 campaign
Information further alleges that Ramaphosa broke his oath of office to Parliament and a list of alleged donors of the CR17 campaign revealed.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa looks on prior to his address to the ILO International Labour Conference on June 10, 2019 in Geneva. – The head of the ILO urged the agency to approve new rules to stop violence and harassment in the workplace, which have faced resistance from employer representatives. ILO director general made the call as he opened a congress marking the United Nations labour body’s 100th anniversary. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
The cats out the bag and a list of alleged donors of the CR17 campaign have been revealed through leaked emails that have been circulating.
According to News 24, detailed emails and its content reveal expropriated information about the funding of the successful presidential campaign. The information further alleges that President Cyril Ramaphosa broke his oath of office to Parliament by not fully disclosing details about the origin of money and Ramaphosa was effectively involved in fundraising efforts for his presidential campaign.
There is a note written by Ramaphosa which is said to instruct his banker to transfer R20 million from a Money Market account; believed to be Ramaphosa’s own; to an account belonging to the Ria Tenda Trust, a trust used as part of the campaign’s financial machinery.
“Mkhwebane used a complaint of suspected money laundering with the Watson donation to obtain the CR17 campaign’s bank statements and warns in her report that Ramaphosa may have been captured by his private donors. She identified donations totalling almost R200m that went into the campaign, including three large amounts from the same donor.”
Kyle Cowan and Lizeka Tandwa, News 24
What do the emails further reveal?
- The emails were obtained secretly despite campaign efforts to keep all communication private.
- The Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan was front and centre in fundraising campaigns for CR17.
- Cyril was consulted by his campaign managers regarding plans to approach several donors; “including a Greek shipping tycoon with links to the arms deal and a politically connected socialite previously suspected of smuggling millions of rands of gold out of the country”.
“Members of the CR17 campaign expressed concerns that the emails were obtained illegally, but they have not disputed their authenticity. It is unclear how Mkhwebane obtained the emails, and her office refused to respond to questions over their provenance this week, or whether Mkhwebane had satisfied herself the emails were not obtained illegally before including them in her report.”
Kyle Cowan and Lizeka Tandwa, News 24
Who were the alleged donors?
The emails are clear that the president was asked permission for a list of people to be contacted, some of the names on the list are:
- David Nogbeni, former Ramaphosa-owned Shanduka CEO and Kojo Mills, co-founder of Shanduka and now based in the US.
- A London group including Martin Moshal, Macsteel founder Eric Samson.
- Paul Ekon a millionaire miner who was once accused of smuggling millions of rands of gold out of the country.
