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President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that his son received half a million rand from controversial facilities management company Bosasa last year.
Ramaphosa was addressing members of Parliament during a scheduled question and answer session in the National Assembly on Tuesday and confirmed that his son Andile Ramaphosa had indeed received payments from Bosasa.
He, however, argued that he had questioned his son, and was “satisfied that it was an above board transaction”.
The president was responding to a question from DA leader Mmusi Maimane, who asked Ramaphosa to set the record straight on the payment received by his son.
Maimane said this came to his knowledge through a sworn affidavit from auditor Peet Venter, who claimed that he was instructed by Bosasa chief executive Gavin Watson to make a payment of R500 000 into an attorney’s trust account which belonged to the president’s son in October last year.
"My son has a financial consultancy business, and he consults for a number of companies. One of those companies is Bosasa. I asked him at close range whether this money was obtained illegally or unlawfully," said Ramaphosa.
According to the president, his son also produced a contract between himself and Bosasa to validate the legality of the transaction.
The president had started his question and answer session by calling on the swift prosecution of those who facilitated and benefited from the VBS looting as well as the speedy recovery of the funds stolen from depositors.
He said advocate Terry Motau’s Great Bank Heist report painted a “deeply disturbing picture of theft and corruption on a massive scale” and called on those responsible for facilitating this fraud and those who benefited to be held accountable.
Read: VBS dossier of damnation: Who got what and what must happen
“We call on the relevant law enforcement institutions to act swiftly to prosecute all those involved and move with greater speed to recover the funds stolen from depositors,” said Ramaphosa.
He said what was tragic about the looting was that most of the depositors were “pensioners, old men and women” who had invested their life savings into VBS.
The president said as a result of the most vulnerable being the most affected, it was critical that every effort be made to recovering the stolen money and minimise the losses suffered.
Ramaphosa said those who were responsible for “destroying VBS Bank, state-owned entities and other parts of the state” were in actual fact stealing the country’s future.
Following this monologue, Maimane took the opportunity to sarcastically thank the president, saying this culture of the politically connected stealing from the poor and unemployed was prevalent, especially within the ruling ANC.
Maimane confronted the president and asked him to set the record straight on the payment of R500 000 transferred on October 18 last year to his son Andile Ramaphosa from Bosasa.
The facilities management company Bosasa, which has since changed its name to African Global Operations, has also been accused of paying former SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s legal fees and installing high-tech security systems in the homes of high-profile ministers and government officials.
Read Ramaphosa's official answers below:
Q&A Ramaphosa by CityPress on Scribd
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