ActionSA secures IPID Phala Phala report, claims Ramaphosa shielded by PPU
ActionSA has secured the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s full report into the conduct of Presidential Protection Unit members in the Phala Phala scandal.
The IPID found that an investigation by the PPU head, Major General Wally Rhoode, into the theft of millions of dollars from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo in 2020 deliberately concealed the incident.
ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont says Rhoode remains in his position without having been held accountable for clear wrongdoing.
Beaumont adds that the report is “nothing short of a scandal”.
“It makes serious findings against members of the PPU. Yet Rhoode remains in his position without having been held accountable for clear wrongdoing,” said Beaumont.
The report implicates Rhoode and a fellow member identified as “Constable HH Rekhoto.”
Beaumont alleges that the report reveals that both members involved themselves in an unlawful probe without opening a docket or reporting their actions through the proper chain of command to the National Police Commissioner, Fannie Masemola.
In addition, the report found that they falsified documents to ensure the investigation was funded by the South African Police Service (SAPS) under false pretences linked to PPU operations.
“…and using the president's name to ensure that they could go about their investigation irregularly without questions being asked.
“Facilitated an unauthorised meeting with officials of the Namibian government in a no-man’s-land near Upington, unlawfully including Dr Bejani Chauke, the Presidential Envoy for Africa,” added Beaumont.
The party reiterated that both the SAPS leadership and the president must account for their failure to act against Rhoode, Rekhoto and Chauke.
“This failure, in the case of the president, is compounded by reports that his name was repeatedly invoked during the investigation to deter scrutiny of its irregular nature.”
ActionSA’s parliamentary team is now pushing for an inquiry to probe the failure to investigate misconduct in the Phala Phala case.
“It is important that we are able to ensure that there is accountability on this issue after so many government institutions fell over themselves to declare the president innocent… and parties formerly in opposition, now in the GNU, have been silenced with blue light vehicles, leaving parties like ActionSA to take up these fights alone for the South African people,” Beaumont says.
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