South Africa: Unpacking the Cyril Ramaphosa Home Robbery Story, and Why You Should Care

GCIS / Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
President Cyril Ramaphosa attends the African Union’s 16th Extraordinary Summit on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa in Equatorial Guinea, May 28, 2022.
7 June 2022
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
analysis By Rebecca Davis

President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing what may be the most personally damaging moment of his presidency. A seemingly unreported 2020 theft of cash from Ramaphosa's Limpopo game farm is coming back to haunt him in a way that is clearly orchestrated to endanger his political future -- but that doesn't mean there aren't some serious issues at stake. We unpack the bizarre saga so far.

Before we get started: is this story completely ludicrous or deadly serious?

In the best South African tradition: both.

How did this all begin?

As Ferial Haffajee laid out brilliantly here, a week ago the former South African spy boss Arthur Fraser walked into a Johannesburg police station and laid a criminal complaint against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

But the real story starts "on or about" 9 February 2020, which is when Fraser claims a very large sum of money -- more about the amount in a minute -- was stolen from Ramaphosa's game farm, Phala Phala, in Limpopo.

Fraser alleged that Ramaphosa did not report the theft to the police, and instead instructed the head of his Presidential Protection Unit, Major-General Wally Rhoode, to essentially go rogue: find the criminals, get the money back, and...

Read the full story on Daily Maverick.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2022 Daily Maverick. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.