PP REPORTS
Ramaphosa cleared again by Public Protector on allegations of misconduct
In the closing report into allegations stemming back to 2021, that President Cyril Ramaphosa personally invited a property development company to become part of the Mooikloof project in contravention of the PFMA, the Public Protector has now cleared him of any misconduct.
Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka has cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa of wrongdoing in a complaint against him over his alleged breach of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) when he invited developers Balwin Properties (Pty) Ltd to become part of the Mooikloof housing project in 2020.
The announcement was made during a media briefing by the Office of the Public Protector on Thursday. Gcaleka released the findings of five reports her office had completed in the fourth quarter of 2023/24 financial year.
Ramaphosa launched the R30-billion private-sector housing project, at Mooikloof east of Pretoria, in October 2020. It is privately owned and developed by Balwin Properties after it was gazetted as a strategic project for the government.
This is the second time President Ramaphosa has been cleared of wrongdoing by the Public Protector. In July 2023, Gcaleka cleared Ramaphosa of wrongdoing in the complaint against him over the handling of housebreaking and forex theft at his private Phala Phala farm in Limpopo, which occurred in 2022.
Her announcement came on the back of a leaked preliminary report by the Public Protector, which quashed allegations that the President had failed to report the crime of housebreaking at Phala Phala with any ill intent.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Despite being cleared by Phala Phala report, Ramaphosa still in danger of being defined by the scandal
In the breakdown of her report on Thursday, Gcaleka said the investigation stemmed from a complaint lodged with the Public Protector by the chief whip of the African Transformation Movement (ATM), Thandiswa Marawu on 16 February 2021.
Marawu was concerned about the “potential maladministration relating to the flouting” of the PFMA after stumbling upon a media clip of the CEO of Balwin Properties relaying how “he received a call directly from the President inviting him to become part” of the Mooikloof project.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Ramaphosa’s Farmgate scandal – a timeline of what we know (and don’t know) so far
She was also concerned whether Balwin Properties complied with the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements that all government suppliers are supposed to comply with in accordance with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003.
Based on an analysis of Marawu’s complaint, Gcaleka investigated whether the President’s invitation to Balwin to become part of Mooikloof was in contravention of the PFMA and the supply chain management (SCM) processes, “and whether such conduct was improper as envisaged in section 182(1)(a) of the Constitution and amounts to maladministration as contemplated in section 6(4)(a)(i) of the Public Protector Act, 1994.”
Read more in Daily Maverick: Government’s R340bn infrastructure investment announced, to acclaim… and misgivings
She found Marawu’s allegations that the President’s invitation to the company was in contravention of the PFMA and SCM processes, were not substantiated.
“We found that Mooikloof was designated as a Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) and listed as part of the 18 other sub-projects under Human Settlements in terms of Gazette Number 43547 of 2020, in accordance with 7(3) of the Infrastructure Development Act of 2014, which provides that a strategic integrated project may [have] private infrastructure, provided it is with the consent of the owner.”
Accordingly, the conduct of the President did not constitute procurement as envisaged in Section 217 of the Constitution and Section 38 of the PFMA, and therefore it does not constitute improper conduct and maladministration, Gcaleka concluded. DM
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Maybe part of her appointment….she will never find Ramaphosa guilty of anything
I wonder if one day we will regret our attitude towards Pres Ramaphosa given his track record of being a dialogue and peace loving leader.
Back to his days as a union leader, a navigator to the government of national unity and a saviour to a captured state by foreign families in collusion with a captured ANC.
I hope the angel that we don’t know will not come back to haunt us.
Phalaphala is a mystery considering that the whistle blower is not morally clean and legally nothing has been concluded yet.
Like Nelson Mandela I hope we will not find ourselves missing the same Cyril we are bashing everyday.
“Peace Loving” = Marikana Massacre.
Dialogue = Corrupt personal financial benefits under the guise of negotiations.
There’s nothin this nation will ever regret more than putting this deceptive, corrupt, 2 timing, scheming crook CR17 into power.
Him and his cabal have deliberately sabotaged and broken down most SOE esp Eskom, Transnet and SAA, so they can sell them for parts to Private Capital, wherein they have direct personal gain through BEE frontmen/women acting as consortia.
HE IS GOING TO BE ARRESTED!!! WOE TO THE BLIND WHO HAVE EYES BUT CANNOT SEE. Behold I send you as sheep among wolves, so the wise as a serpent and meek as a dove! Time is the tester and revealed if all truth, this Year the real wolves are going to Jail.
Viva … the Trump style ‘evangelical’ ! Try like him … to start selling bibles . A book he has never read .. let alone understand !
Who is the young woman put in such an important and presumably learned position to make such judgements…..the entire system and the anc is rotten to the core!
For sure part of her appointment. All ANC top job appointments comes with certain favors. Cyril got his hands dirty on all those Phalla dollars and no one knows from where. The head off SARS who is always threatening poor people and very small bussinisses for every rand did not do anything about those dollars. Why not. He was appointed again for another 4 years. For favors like this. Cyril will never be guilty for anything just like Zuma.
It’s amazing this man can do no wrong. Zuma 2.0
Bob F – March 31st 2024 at 05:47
I am president of the ANC so as always I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine. That’s how we do things.
Just the possibility of a bit of mutual back scratching here, and Ramasofa still has not told us the truth about his sofa stuffed with dollars.
Well at least it’s nothing new for the corrupt ANC government! We all know all to well that everyone that holds a high position in the corrupt ANC government is all corrupt! So it doesn’t even help to complain about it anymore, we must just vote them out of government once and for all!!