{"id":28410,"date":"2024-10-11T06:21:28","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T10:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28410"},"modified":"2024-10-11T06:21:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T10:21:28","slug":"south-africa-president-cyril-ramaphosa-wont-be-charged-over-farm-scandal-say-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/10\/11\/south-africa-president-cyril-ramaphosa-wont-be-charged-over-farm-scandal-say-prosecutors\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa won&#8217;t be charged over farm scandal say prosecutors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">South African prosecutors say they will not pursue criminal charges against President Cyril Ramaphosa in relation to the controversial farm theft scandal that nearly brought down the president two years ago.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A former spy chief laid a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa, accusing him of committing irregularities in trying to hide the theft of $4m (\u00a33.25m) in cash at his game farm in the north-eastern Limpopo province.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The president denied any wrongdoing, saying that the money stolen from his sofa in 2020 came from the legitimate sale of buffaloes at his Phala Phala farm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The decision not to bring any charges against Ramaphosa or anyone else came after \u201ca comprehensive investigation process\u201d, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ramaphosa survived the so-called \u201cfarmgate\u201d scandal and was re-elected as president in June, albeit after being forced to form a coalition, while the criminal investigations were still ongoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2022, his African National Congress (ANC) used its majority to block an impeachment motion against him over the scandal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1o5f7ft-BulletListContainer e5tfeyi0\">\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-63832698\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A quick guide to South Africa&#8217;s &#8216;Farmgate&#8217; scandal<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-62289552\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa&#8217;s clean President Ramaphosa faces his own scandal<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last year, the anti-corruption watchdog cleared Ramaphosa amid calls for him to resign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Arthur Fraser, who headed the state security agency between 2016 and 2018, claimed that Ramaphosa hid the farm theft from police and tax authorities and instead organised the kidnapping and questioning of the robbers in an attempt to silence them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The president was also accused of money laundering, tax evasion and breaching foreign currency laws over the cash, which was in US dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ramaphosa acknowledged the burglary but denied the criminal allegations, saying he had reported the break-in to the police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has also disputed the amount of money involved and said it came from legitimate sales of game from his animal-breeding farm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The highly publicised burglary threw Ramaphosa&#8217;s government into turmoil ahead of a crucial party leadership vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But an investigation into the matter has found insufficient evidence of corruption and money laundering, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a statement, Director of Public Prosecutions in Limpopo Ivy Thenga said the decision not to prosecute Ramaphosa was taken after a &#8220;careful assessment&#8221; of all available evidence presented to the prosecutors by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The available evidence presented to prosecutors cannot sustain any charge,&#8221; NPA spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The probe also covered any possible contravention of income tax and exchange control regulations, the prosecutor added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The case against three people accused of breaking into Ramaphosa&#8217;s farm is set to continue next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They appeared at a Limpopo court earlier this week on several charges, including money laundering and house-breaking.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cd6qpqx24yyo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">South African prosecutors say they will not pursue criminal charges against President Cyril Ramaphosa in relation to the controversial farm theft scandal that nearly brought down the president two years ago. A former spy chief <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/10\/11\/south-africa-president-cyril-ramaphosa-wont-be-charged-over-farm-scandal-say-prosecutors\/\" title=\"South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa won&#8217;t be charged over farm scandal say prosecutors\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[1486,10720,10687,1484,10721,977,10719,10699,1485,983],"class_list":{"0":"post-28410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-burglary","11":"tag-cyril-ramaphosa","12":"tag-limpopo","13":"tag-money-laundering","14":"tag-phala-phala","15":"tag-south-africa","16":"tag-south-africa-director-of-public-prosecutions","17":"tag-south-africa-national-prosecuting-authority","18":"tag-tax-evasion","19":"tag-theft","20":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28412,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28410\/revisions\/28412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}