Presidential heist charges: Did President Cyril Ramaphosa break the law?

Sensational allegations by former spy boss Arthur Fraser put President Cyril Ramaphosa at the centre of an elaborate cover-up in which he allegedly made R1m in payoffs to buy the thieves’ silence after a multimillion-dollar heist at his Limpopo game farm.

The alleged conspiracy is laid bare in graphic detail in an affidavit from Fraser, complete with WhatsApp messages, video stills of the burglary in progress and photographs of the suspects, one of whom was employed as a domestic worker for the president. One picture shows an alleged suspect lounging against a brand-new Golf GTI he apparently bought in Cape Town with his share of the loot. 

The affidavit, which the Sunday Times has obtained, paints a picture of a president who not only stashed large sums of foreign currency in furniture in his house, but then played a central part in covering up the incident, which took place on February 9 2020.

At one point, the affidavit alleges, Ramaphosa even engaged with Namibian President Hage Geingob on the matter after one of the suspects fled to that country.

The allegations, which are yet to be tested in court and are made by a known adversary of the president, have rocked Ramaphosa’s presidency and called into question his commitment to transparency and clean government.

Although Ramaphosa’s office admitted a burglary took place and that an undisclosed amount of cash from the proceeds of the sale of game on his farm was stolen, his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya denied that the president tried to cover up the matter and had in fact asked his head of security to investigate.

Magwenya denied the amount involved was $4m (about R60m), as alleged by Fraser, but said the true figure had yet to be calculated.

But Fraser — who told the Zondo commission that as a former spy boss he has dirt on top figures — says an irregular secret investigation led by the head of the presidential protection unit, Maj-Gen Wally Rhoode, and involving a farmer, crime intelligence officers and retired police officers, led to a backstreet gold exchange in Cape Town where the loot was converted into rands.

Ramaphosa has several questions to answer, but the overriding issue is: did the president break the law?

In his affidavit, dated June 1, Fraser claims that “large undisclosed sums of United States dollars, concealed in the furniture in the main farmhouse”, were “unlawfully removed from the president’s premises by the assailants”.

Fraser says the burglary was not formally reported to the police but Ramaphosa instructed Rhoode to investigate, find the suspects and retrieve the stolen cash.

“Rhoode subsequently acquired the services of a local farmer with investigative experience and capabilities to assist him,” the affidavit says.

“Rhoode immediately, illegally, constituted a team, consisting of former SAPS members and service members of SAPS Crime Intelligence Unit, along with the local farmer to investigate the matter at the instance of President Ramaphosa.”

Fraser claims that he heard from a member of Rhoode’s team that a woman domestic worker at Phala Phala, the president’s farm, discovered the dollars “concealed in the furniture of the President’s residence on the farm”.

The domestic worker, he says, lived in a nearby informal settlement called Cyferskyl which is home to many Namibian citizens. She conspired with some of her neighbours who put her in touch with four Namibians and one South African — all of whom who live in Cape Town — to burgle the president’s home, Fraser alleges.

He names these five people in the affidavit.

The burglary took place after 10pm on February 9 two years ago (See page 5) after which the five immediately returned to Cape Town. The incident was recorded on CCTV footage, which Fraser claims was sent to him by a member of Rhoode’s team.

In a statement he released on Wednesday, Fraser said the amount stolen was more than $4m, but in his affidavit he says: “Although there was not any certainty as to the precise amount of the US dollars stolen from the president’s residence, the quantum was speculated to be in the region of approximately $4m to $8m.” 

Fraser further alleges that the president paid the suspects off in exchange for their silence.

“The domestic worker was subsequently initially dismissed from her employment at Phala Phala but was later reinstated following discussions between President Ramaphosa and the domestic worker’s father,” Fraser says. 

“Upon reinstatement the domestic worker was paid an amount of R150,000 cash in lieu of (sic) her undertaking not to divulge any information of what had transpired at Phala Phala.”

Rhoode, Fraser claims, traced the suspects to Cape Town “where they were apprehended under the ruse of an official police investigation and were interrogated”.

“The stolen dollars were exchanged for rands at an informal foreign exchange service… in Cape Town,” he alleges.

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By then, the suspects had supposedly already deposited some of the money in the bank and started spending the “stolen loot” on “high-end purchases” including a Ford Ranger Wildtrak bakkie and the Golf GTI.

Fraser alleges that after one of the suspects was found to have fled to Namibia, Ramaphosa “sought the assistance of … Geingob in apprehending the suspect in Namibia”.

“This resulted in Rhoode travelling to Namibia where the suspect was interviewed and had stolen monies seized from him. Rhoode had travelled to Namibia utilising official government resources and had not been legally processed through border control to have left the country, nor that he returned to the country,” Fraser says.

The Sunday Times was unable to verify this. 

Other evidence Fraser attached to his affidavit included alleged text messages between a woman who knew the suspects and the investigators.

“After interrogating [the suspects], Rhoode’s team confiscated large sums of money and valuables,” Fraser claims.

“Rhoode and his team, on the instruction of President Ramaphosa, paid [them] R150,000 each in cash to conceal the events that took place at Phala Phala on 9 February 2020.”

Fraser claims that the presence of “large undisclosed sums of foreign currency… concealed in furniture at his Phala Phala residence is prima facie proof of money-laundering”.

Paying the five suspects R150,000 each to keep quiet, he says, amounts to obstructing the course of justice and contravening the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. Fraser further claims Rhoode and his team “forcefully interrogated the alleged suspects… amounting to kidnapping”.

National police spokesperson Col Athlenda Mathe said: “A case of money-laundering, defeating the ends of justice and kidnapping has been registered.” She declined to comment further.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya also confirmed the police investigation.

Referring to the amount of money stolen, he said: “[It’s] not nearly as high as the figure claimed by Fraser. The process to verify the exact amount based on sales during the period is under way and the details will be provided to the police.”

After Fraser dropped his bombshell on Wednesday, announcing that he had laid charges at the Rosebank police station in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa confirmed a burglary occurred in which proceeds from the sale of game were stolen. Ramaphosa, who pledged to co-operate with a police investigation, rejected Fraser’s allegations of criminal conduct.

On Friday, Magwenya — responding to Fraser's statement two days earlier — said Ramaphosa bred and sold valuable game including sable, red oryx, golden oryx, buffalo, white impala, black impala, roan, golden wildebeest and black-saddle impala at Phala Phala. “Generally, all sales are either paid through EFT or in cash,” Magwenya said, adding that buyers often came from overseas and paid in dollars. 

Magwenya said normally all cash received from game sales was reported and banked. “With respect to the robbery, the cash was stolen before it could be reported and banked.”

He had not responded to further questions about the affidavit by the time of going to print.

Rhoode said he could not comment. “There is an investigation against me so I can’t respond to anything. I must wait until the investigators come to me otherwise I compromise myself and I don’t want to break my security clearance,” he said.

South African Reserve Bank spokesperson Ziyanda Mtshali said the bank did not comment on any investigations. She added: “The current exchange control policy stipulates that a resident in the Republic of South Africa who becomes entitled to sell or procure the sale of foreign currency from a nonresident source must offer that currency for sale to an authorised dealer within a maximum period of 30 days.”

Yesterday, the Sunday Times visited the currency exchange shop in Cape Town where the dollars stolen from Ramaphosa’s farm were allegedly exchanged.

Touts offering affordable, tax-free, foreign exchange deals operate around the shop in an arcade opposite the Reserve Bank’s offices in Hout Street. Two of them escorted a Sunday Times team into a dingy office advertised as a jewellery shop, and assured journalists that “our boss is fair, he can even lower the rate for you”. A compliance certificate hung on the wall. 

A man burst into the office in the middle of the conversation, brandishing two $1 bills. The dealer gave him R40. No documentation was asked.

The dealer, who declined to reveal his name, told the Sunday Times that he does not keep records of clients and he did not  remember the men alleged to have burgled Ramaphosa.

He said he could exchange “whatever amount of money, even R1m”.