Central Bank gives Ramaphosa the final get-out of jail free card on the buffalo sale and dollar theft at his farm.
The SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) has found that because Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa did not take receipt of the animals he bought from President Cyril Ramaphosa, the head of state is cleared of holding and not declaring forex. In December 2019, Mustafa bought a range of game from Ramaphosa's Phala Phala farm and paid $580-000, he confirmed. He didn't ever arrange to have his haul fetched.
Some of the money was stolen from couches into which it had been sewn in February 2020. Ramaphosa's head of VIP Protection, Wally Rhoode, then undertook an off-books investigation to find the culprits. Former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal complaint in June 2020, which is still being investigated by the Hawks.
"On the facts available to it, the Sarb finds that there was no perfected transaction, and thus the Sarb cannot conclude there was any contravention of the Exchange Control Regulations," the Central Bank said in a two-page statement on Monday, August 21. It also found that Ramaphosa was not entitled to the funds as "conditions precedent" to the transaction had not been met. All South Africans must declare forex to the Treasury within 30 days of receiving it.
"It's a convenient...
