EDITORIAL: What do you have to hide, Mr President?

President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly refused to come clean on why millions of US dollars were hidden in furniture on his Phala Phala farm two years ago.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly refused to come clean on why millions of US dollars were hidden in furniture on his Phala Phala farm two years ago.

Published Jul 20, 2022

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Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to understand that being asked to account is far from being bullied, as he claims, unless he thinks he is immune to being asked difficult questions.

Perhaps being treated with kid gloves by his comrades in Parliament and in the ANC has made Ramaphosa forget what true accountability means.

His remarks at the recently concluded 15th SACP national congress that former State Security Agency boss Arthur Fraser’s criminal complaint against him and other “related matters” were an effort to stop him from renewing and uniting the ANC are in stark contrast to the president who preached about a clean, transparent and accountable government after occupying the country’s highest office.

Ramaphosa has repeatedly refused to come clean on why millions of US dollars were hidden in furniture on his Phala Phala farm two years ago.

Also damning are the allegations that those suspected of the theft were kidnapped, tortured and bribed with thousands of rand for their silence.

While he has hardly uttered a word in Parliament about the scandal, Ramaphosa has not missed the opportunity to use his political addresses to attack anyone demanding that he answers regarding what is now known as “Farmgate”.

“I am not going to be intimidated or bullied into submission to stop the fight against corruption and wrongdoing. I will do my work. I will do my work for the good of the country. We are in a fight for the soul of the ANC,” Ramaphosa told the national congress.

The president may have convinced his allies and alliance partners that he was a victim of bullying, but that does not mean he is not accountable. So long as he continues to evade questions around this scandal and hides behind ongoing investigations, South Africans will continue to wonder what he has got to hide.

He cannot conveniently play the victim now when he remained mum about a serious crime committed on his property.

The longer Ramaphosa beats about the bush on this saga, the more suspicious his commitment to the ANC’s renewal looks.

Nothing shows any sign of being renewed. Instead, South Africans are getting more or less the same of the ANC’s costly and disastrous failures, if not worse.

Cape Times