Former ANC treasurer-general and Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa believes President Cyril Ramaphosa Phala Phala farm scandal will remain a stain that will haunt him.
“From where I sit I never thought Phala Phala will go away because Parliament voted the way it did. Even after the court decision, if the court decision goes in favour of the President, Phala Phala will still not die.”
He made the remarks as the Constitutional Court recently reserved judgment where the EFF and ATM had challenged the National Assembly’s decision to not establish a committee to look into a finding that Ramaphosa may have violated his oath of office over the Phala Phala scandal.
A section 89 panel led by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo concluded that Ramaphosa may have a case to answer over the undeclared foreign currency concealed in couches before it was stolen during a 2020 theft on his farm in Limpopo.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Cape Town Press Club on his new book Witness to Power: A Political Memoir, Phosa said the book was based largely on his own experiences.
Recalling his encounter with Nelson Mandela, Phosa said he learnt from Mandela that there were moments when negotiations became an instrument to define the future and that peace was more important than war.
“He said ‘I don’t share bitterness about the past. I am urging all of you to rise above that bitterness and become different human beings’.”
Phosa recalled that he along with former Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale and Ramaphosa received a “dubious honour” of plotting against former president Thabo Mbeki without any evidence.
“We were cleared and that caused a problem. It gave birth to a (former president Jacob) Zuma. For whatever reasons, he became this new victim who ascended to power.”
Phosa also told of a moment when he was among the first people to call on Zuma to step down only to be his “terrible enemy”.
He said Ramaphosa came to the scene at a time the ANC was corroded by massive corruption which was crushing the government from local up to national government.
“That led Ramaphosa to embrace the Zondo Commission and, of course, the Zondo Commission pointed to the challenges in law-enforcement agencies. It is sad some of the people Zondo pointed a finger at are still in Cabinet and now they have to be pulled down by the media and are discredited in Parliament.”
He, however, said the country has not reached a point where law-enforcement agencies were fighting corruption.
“For me the NPA is toothless. There is no coordinated plan to tackle corruption.”
Cape Times