Ramaphosa denies FS school tender corruption allegations
President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied any involvement with a tender for the construction of a school in the Free State in 2015.
He was reacting to reports that a complaint of corruption had been made against him at the Sandton police station.
According to The Star newspaper relates to a "dubious" tender given by the Free State Department of Education to a company that the president had founded, the Shanduka Group, for the construction of a school.
The presidency’s Tyrone Seale says while details of the complaint is not clear, "the newspaper report contains glaring inaccuracies and a clear misrepresentation of facts".
"President Ramaphosa wishes to place on record that the Shanduka Group never received a tender for the construction of any schools in the Free State.
"Shanduka did not operate in the construction industry and the nature of Shanduka’s investments and operations are publicly available.
"President Ramaphosa was neither a director nor a shareholder in Shanduka Group in 2015, at the time he was alleged to have 'persuaded' the provincial department to award the non-existent contract - he exited the business in November 2014.
"The Shanduka Foundation, a non-profit organisation established by President Ramaphosa in 2002, has made substantial contributions to the development of township and rural schools and in 2013 the Shanduka Foundation committed R100 million to a school development project in the Free State alongside Kagiso Trust and the Free State Department of Education.
"This project, originally known as the Kagiso Shanduka Trust and now simply as KST, has to date facilitated the contribution of around R280 million from foundations and private sector donors to schools in the Free State.
"Neither President Ramaphosa nor any companies in which he held interests has ever received any benefit from school construction in the Free State or anywhere else in the country.”
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