Cape Argus E-dition

Inside the report

HERE are hard-hitting quotes pulled from the panel report on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Farmgate scandal.

• “It is common cause that there was foreign currency that was “stored below the cushion” or “concealed” in a leather sofa (according to one of the suspects who was interviewed by the investigators)”.

• “The information presented by the President on the storage of the money is vague and leaves unsettling gaps”.

• “It is not clear whether the money was stored below the cushions or inside the sofa. If a sum of US$ 580 000 in cash money was “stored below the cushions” it would have been visible to anyone passing by”.

• “In these circumstances, we find, as a matter of probability, that the money was in fact concealed inside a leather sofa, as the suspect who was interviewed stated in the audio clip provided to us”.

• “And the President did not express surprise at being told that the money had not been kept in the safe”.

• “We are raising these questions because it is uncommon for such a huge sum of money in cash to be stuffed inside a sofa and to remain there for more than 40 days without being banked”.

• “We are left with the impression that [the alleged buyer] decided to come to the farm on Christmas day in 2019 to view buffaloes carrying more than half a million US$ in cash. After paying $580 000 for the buffaloes, [the alleged buyer] left with no indication when he

would return to collect his buffaloes. In fact, there is no indication that he returned at all”.

• “Regrettably, the acknowledgement of receipt is silent on whether the purchase price included other costs associated with the export of the animals or who was to be responsible for those costs”.

• “The leaving of animals on the farm for over two years after paying more than half a million US$ for them, the absence of particulars of [the alleged buyer] in the acknowledgement of receipt, the lack of explanation as to what was to become of these animals, raise substantial doubt about the sale transaction itself”.

• “On the version of the President, the only foreign currency that was in the sofa was a sum of US$ 580 000 in cash. There are, in our view two possibilities, either the whole amount that was inside the sofa was stolen, or a portion of it was stolen”.

• “We are left to speculate about how much was stolen. Given the lapse of time since the theft occurred, by now it should have been established whether the whole amount was stolen or whether some of it was stolen”.

• “Furthermore, the Presidency was reported to have said that reconciliation was being performed for money or transactions that occurred over the weekend of the theft. Yet to date, the exact amount that was stolen has not been made known”.

METRO

en-za

2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

http://capeargus.pressreader.com/article/281681143904624

African News Agency