Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa would not cling to power if adverse findings were made against him in the ongoing multiple investigations around the Phala Phala scandal, says ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
Mbalula was speaking yesterday during a media conference at Luthuli House.
“If they (institutions probing Ramaphosa) release adverse findings against the president, the ANC will not run short of the alternative,” Mbalula said in an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
“I am saying the ANC will not run short of the alternative if the results of those commissions or law enforcement (agencies) are adverse on the president. The ANC has got to act on that, and the ANC will act.”
Mbalula said the ANC would not be short of an alternative to represent the governing party in the tightly contested 2024 general elections if Ramaphosa had to step aside.
“Ramaphosa has never clung to power. He has never had difficulties, even of exploring that particular decision if anything of that sort comes up. But he has said he is innocent and nothing wrong has actually happened in terms of Phala Phala,” Mbalula said.
“Allow the processes to come to their finality, and not one at the expense of the other, all of them.”
In March, in a preliminary report, acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka cleared Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in the Phala Phala farm scandal.
Gcaleka has sent her report to the affected parties, the Office of the Public Protector confirmed.
The full report has yet to be published.
Mbalula also said the party welcomed the police’s decision to open an inquest into the death of MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson.
Joemat-Pettersson, Section 194 inquiry chairperson Richard Dyantyi, and ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina are implicated in a bribery scandal in relation to a parliamentary inquiry into suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
Joemat-Pettersson mysteriously died on June 5, a few days after The Star broke the story about the allegation of soliciting a bribe of R600 000, and the details in connection with her death are sketchy.
This week, the police confirmed that Joemat-Pettersson’s death was suspected to be unnatural, meaning the cause of death would be investigated further.
“The police are doing the right thing, which is permissible in terms of the law. So we believe as the ANC that the law should be allowed to take its course without any hindrance,” Mbalula said.
He further defended Ramaphosa’s trip to Ukraine and Russia on a peacekeeping mission.
“We are against the war. We are against the war. We are not pro-Russia in terms of this war, as others have said. There are those that say we are jeopardising the economy because we are delinquents, we are children of Russian President Vladimir Putin, we are pro-Russia and all of that.
“That’s not the case,” Mbalula said.
The Star