EFF not done with Ramaphosa’s Bosasa donation allegation

The EFF plans to challenge the Pretoria High Court’s decision to set aside findings by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane that President Cyril Ramaphosa misled Parliament about the Bosasa donation he received for his 2017 party presidential campaign.

In a statement, the red berets said that letting Ramaphosa win this case would be undermining the Constitution. The party plans to take the case to the Constitutional Court.

“We seek to give the highest court in the land the opportunity to either correct the unreasonableness of the Pretoria High Court or join in obliterating the principles of equality before the law, transparency and accountability,” the statement read.

This comes after the high court on Wednesday ruled that the findings in Mkhwebane’s investigation into the funding for Ramaphosa’s #CR17 campaign should be set aside.

Read: Mkhwebane dealt another legal blow as judges absolve Ramaphosa

The judgment against Mkhwebane found that the Public Protector had no jurisdiction to investigate the #CR17 campaign funding; that Ramaphosa was not obliged to make disclosures of the donations received by the campaign; and that the Public Protector had no foundation, in fact and in law, to arrive at the conclusion that Ramaphosa had involved himself in unlawful activities.

However, the red berets said that exonerating Ramaphosa of the charges meant that he was above the law.

“Absolving him means there are laws for the rest of South Africans and laws for Ramaphosa. It is a direct violation of our constitutional order, [which dictates] equality before the law,” said EFF spokesperson Delisiwe Ngwenya.

“Equality before the law means that Ramaphosa must be subjected to the same scrutiny that former president Jacob Zuma and many others faced when they violated the Constitution, the law, as well as the rules of Parliament.”

Judges Dunstan Mlambo, Elias Matojane and Raylene Keightley rebuked Mkhwebane for not being open-minded; for conducting a reckless investigation that overstepped her jurisdiction; for invoking the wrong laws and using the wrong legal wording; ignoring evidence at her disposal; and for failing to appreciate the elementary and basic rules of law.

Earlier this year, City Press reported that Ramaphosa had asked that the court review and set aside the adverse findings made against him last year, which included that he misled Parliament in an answer to former DA leader Mmusi Maimane in November 2018 regarding a R500 000 donation to his election campaign by the late Bosasa boss Gavin Watson.

Read: ‘DA’ stands for ‘Double Attitude’, notably around the R500K Bosasa donation

In response, Ramaphosa said the money was for a business deal between Watson and his son, Andile Ramaphosa, but later corrected that.

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu complained that Ramaphosa violated the executive ethics code in his answer.

The EFF said for the court to rule that Ramaphosa did not benefit from the fund was absurd.

“How is it that MPs are expected to declare simple items costing a few thousands, yet a man who received billions in funding from key and powerful business individuals in the country to become president of the ruling party does not have to declare? How is that a court of law can logically say such a person did not benefit personally when the billions worked to campaign for him to become a president in his personal capacity?” Ngwenya questioned.

New EFF Spokesperson Delisiwe Ngwenya

Although the EFF seemed to back Mkhwebane, the ANC and the DA accepted the court judgment.

DA interim leader John Steenhuisen said that Mkhwebane should vacate office as she is not fit to hold it. He alleged that she was part of Zuma’s faction in the ANC.

“Successive court rulings against her, as well as photos of such known state capture agents as Mosebenzi Zwane and Bongani Bongo at her 50th birthday party, support the DA’s long-held view that Mkhwebane is not fit for office and that hers was a state capture deployment all along,” he said in a statement issued by the DA on Tuesday.

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