Kganyago: SARB’s Phala Phala report couldn’t prove exchange control violations
South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago told MPs the evidence before the central bank could not prove that President Cyril Ramaphosa violated exchange controls by keeping foreign currency at his Phala Phala farm.
Kganyago explained the findings of the Reserve Bank’s recent report into the Phala Phala matter to Parliament’s finance committee on Wednesday.
The report cleared the president of any wrongdoing.
Kganyago told MPs that President Ramaphosa's former Phala Phala lodge manager, Silvester Ndlovu, decided to move $580 000 from the safe to the bedroom “for safety purposes”.
He said Ndlovu removed the foreign currency to the bedroom because every employee at the lodge had access to the safe.
"On the 30th of December 2019, Mr. Ndlovu decided to move the foreign currency from the safe, to which many employees had access and which was used for general storage purposes in the Phala Phala farm, to a bedroom in the president's house in the Phala Phala farm which he considered to be a safer place and hid it under the cushions of a sofa for fear of same being stolen while he would be on leave," said Kganyago.
The Reserve Bank found that President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Ntaba Nyoni Estate were under no legal obligation to declare the foreign currency at the Phala Phala farm.
In a statement, the Reserve Bank said neither the president nor Ntaba Nyoni was legally entitled to the $580 000 it received from Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa for 20 buffalo, as the transaction was never “perfected”.
Kganyago said Ramaphosa and Ndlovu reported that the purchase could not be finalised due to pending matters.
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