One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane has welcomed the Constitutional Court’s judgment in the case of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential campaign funds.
The Constitutional Court has dismissed Public Protector, advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s challenge to the invalidation of her report on the matter.
#CR17BankStatements Jafta:There was no shred of evidence that the President and his son were involved the funds of the CR17 Campaign. There is evidence that they were involved. The President didn’t directly benefit of the campaign funds. #sabcnews
— #TheLordOfTheMedia (@samkelemaseko) July 1, 2021
In the 2019 report, Mkhwebane said Ramaphosa had deliberately mislead MPs and exposed himself to a situation of a risk between his official and personal interests. She recommended that he be investigated by the Speaker and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
However, the court believes Mkhwebane erred in fact and in law in her findings.
#sabcnews The PP Act does not empower the Public Protector to look into the affairs of private political parties. She is mandated to look into state matters according to the Concourt.
— Busi Chimombe (@BusiBopela) July 1, 2021
Live proceeding:
Maimane, who was leader of the DA at the time, had asked Ramaphosa in Parliament about a R500 000 donation from Bosasa towards his African National Congress (ANC) Presidency.
The One South Africa Movement leader says there is no denying that a donation was made towards Ramaphosa’s campaign. However, he agrees that Mkhwebane went beyond her scope of investigation.
“I think what remains factual is that a donation was paid and that’s the first fact. Secondly is that we cannot deny the fact that Bosasa has a history of being able to bribe politicians who were in the ANC at the time and it’s been established that [it] does not change. But ultimately when we look at what the Public Protector was to investigate or not, the judgment is correct. We asked the very fundamental question,” adds Maimane.
#sabcnews Musi Maimane & Julius Malema in their complaints to PP Mkhwebane did not mention breach of the Executive Ethics Code by Pres. Ramaphosa Mkhwebane in her July 2019 report however looked into matter. Concourt Judge Jafta say PP cannot go into issues not in complaints.
— Busi Chimombe (@BusiBopela) July 1, 2021
The Democratic Alliance has noted the judgment.
“The party is not responsible for decisions made by the former leader and his chief of staff, which the Constitutional Court has today shown to have been made erroneously and without legal standing. I personally warned against the matter at the time when I served as Chief Whip,” says DA leader, John Steenhuisen.
Political parties react to the ConCourt ruling dismissing Public Protector’s CR17 challenge:
The ANC says the judgment has vindicated Ramaphosa.
ANC Spokesperson, Pule Mabe, says the party has always maintained that Ramaphosa is innocent and has nothing to hide on who was behind the donations for his ANC presidential campaign in 2017.
Maimane had raised the issue in parliament in 2018.
Mabe says: “The President had gone further to even clarify to the Speaker of the National Assembly to correct the answer that he had initially given. Because as sooner as he became aware of the facts, he [Ramaphosa] was duty bound to clarify those issues which shows that the President has always sought to uphold the integrity of the national assembly.” -Additional reporting by Abongile Dumako