The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should investigate claims that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have engaged in money laundering, says the Democratic Alliance (DA).
This comes in the wake of the theft of millions of dollars from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm in February 2020.
John Steenhuisen, the head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), said during a press conference on Tuesday that the party had written to the FBI’s Pretoria field office to investigate claims of potential money laundering and the source of US currency that had been taken from Ramaphosa’s property.
“We have requested that the FBI considers investigating the source of the funds and whether the money was brought into South Africa legitimately and declared to the appropriate authorities.
“We have recommended that the ledgers or journals which would have recorded the alleged sale of wild game at auction be requested from the President, to determine the identities of those involved in the suspicious cash transactions.
“A cash transaction within South Africa involving $4m is deeply suspicious, and more so since the cash was then hidden in furniture, and its theft was investigated off the record and covered up,” Steenhuisen said.
Ramaphosa’s Limpopo property allegedly suffered a break-in in February 2020, after which at least five people were accused of stealing money.
While acknowledging the robbery, Ramaphosa claimed that far less was taken. He stayed vague, stating that the situation was still being looked at.
[Image: FBI, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76760936]