South Africa is a very interesting country in as far as democracy is concerned. Did you know that since they gained independence in 1994, they have never had a president who served full two terms? This is worrying to others while it remains very interesting to other observers.
Nelson Mandela was president for only five years but that was out of choice. Thabo Mbeki the academic philosopher went on to win elections for the second term but could not finish it because of some misdemeanours he committed while president. He was followed by Jacob Zuma who became embroiled in a corruption scandal that sent him home to Nkandla.
The brouhaha that arose after Mandela’s departure gives one the idea that the old man was not going to complete his second term. He was slightly involved in the arms deal corruption. Andrew Feinstein in his book; After the Party, clearly states that Mandela looked the other way when he was made aware that his ministers had their heads dipped in the cookie jar. This was particularly true with the Minister of Defence, Joe Modise.
Americans believe in something they have termed “second term curse” as most of their presidents have had problems in their second term. Issues of infidelity arose during Bill Clinton’s second term. Going a little bit back into history, President Ronald Reagan had his trouble during his second term. That became to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
The Watergate scandal occurred during the second term of President Richard Nixon. This political scandal was so bad that the president resigned and gave way for his vice to occupy the White House. That’s the pattern I have equally established for our neighbours to the south.
What President Ramaphosa finds himself in now is what can be regarded as the mother of all scandals if you like. This is embarrassing to the president. One can read from his body language that the man knows he must raise his hand and grab the door handle and leave.
It has been difficult for me to get to know what exactly happened at the farm that the president owns in Limpopo until I was briefed by someone close to the events in South Africa. While a Namibian domestic worker named Froliana was cleaning at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm, she came across millions of dollars under a mattress. I thought mattress banking was long abolished across Africa, but it’s interesting that such a wealthy and high profile person can be implicated in such acts. At least dust bin banking was more creative than this old system.
Floriana took pictures of the stash and showed the photos to her brother who then organized a gang from Cape Town to come and break into the president’s house. After this midnight operation, the gang returned to Cape Town. The maid was then paid by a senior police officer to keep silent about the break in and for that she received R150 000.
The suspects went on to spend the money wildly and they were nabbed. They spent the money on such luxury items like vehicles, watches and other related items. The suspects were taken into custody and were questioned only by senior police officers close to the president. Now, what is interesting is that the suspects were each offered R50 000 to buy their silence. The reason why there are issues of kidnapping is because the arrests were never recorded into police occurrence books.
Now, former top spy Arthur Fraser has decided to break the silence. This case was nicely buried because the events mentioned above occurred in February 2020. There seems like there has been a fall out with Fraser for the fact that he is no longer in the employment of the South African government. Something terribly went wrong between now and then.
Ramaphosa has come forward to try as hard as he can to clear his name. In his unconvincing public proclamation, he says the money that was stolen had been earned as proceeds from wildlife sale. Indeed prior to the break-in, Phala-Phala had hosted a big animal auction. I remember a buffalo bull was sold for R1.2 m in the same farm nearly ten years ago. So the sale must have raised tens of millions.
However, Ramaphosa in his attempt to clear his name forgets that cash is never in the equation at such auctions. The man should have rather kept silent because instead he is incriminating himself. Whatever public utterances he makes now, he is digging his own grave deeper. There is absolutely no logic in what he is trying to make sense of.
Last month, I submitted in this paper that Ramaphosa was hiding the truth under his tongue (30 May, 2022). Here we are now! The man is entangling himself with his own tongue. They must take the president for questioning and the game farm must be sealed off as a crime scene. If the police are honest with their findings, they will bring forth millions of Botswana pula from the ceiling, far more than what has already been found.
Those in the film industry have already started writing their scripts for a movie based on this story. This is all interesting. I have a very high element of suspicion that Botswana money is part of the loot. For the moment I will not want to mention names but I can smell a rat.
Julius Malema of the EFF has already taken the stage and is thriving in the limelight about this case. He has vowed that they will not allow the president to address parliament, and we have all seen the chaotic scene in Cape Town on Friday.
The writing is on the wall, clearly the second term curse has befallen President Ramaphosa. The ruling ANC has been showing signs of disunity as they are driving toward their provincial elections which will culminate with the election of the president. But the road for Ramaphosa has hit a dead-end.
