The Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC), Fikile Mbalula, has expressed that the South African ruling party is concerned about a letter sent by former President Thabo Mbeki to the Deputy President of the ANC, regarding the attitude of party members towards the report of the Independent Parliamentary Committee on the Phala Phala scandal.
In the letter, Mbeki said the party had behaved with the matter as if it had something to hide, given that the ANC had used its majority in Parliament to block the establishment of an All-Party Committee (APC) to investigate whether the President should be impeached or not depending on his involvement in the matter as outlined in the findings of the APC report.
It should be recalled that in the Phala Phala case, President Cyril Ramaphosa is accused of concealing the theft in 2020 of a large sum of foreign currency from his private farm and of sequestering and then bribing the thieves to remain silent.
The independent commission was set up by the Speaker of Parliament and concluded in a report that Ramaphosa faces serious constitutional violations for exposing himself to a conflict of interest and for breaching the Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act.
The ANC Secretary General said that “national officials will discuss the letter and seek an audience with the former head of state.”
Thus, Thabo Mbeki blasted the ANC’s decision to veto the establishment of the Ad Hoc All-Party Parliamentary Committee to investigate various allegations against the state-owned power utility Eskom, including corruption.
The South African Constitutional Court had rejected Ramaphosa’s application to quash Parliament’s report recommending that he be removed from office due to his alleged involvement in the Phala Phala scandal.