Zuma must disclose finances: Ramphele

Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele called on President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday to disclose his personal finances.

   

"I call upon President Zuma to publish his accounts immediately.  

 

What is there to hide?" she asked reporters in Johannesburg.

   

"South Africans deserve a president that sets a good example for the rest of the country to follow."

   

She said Parliament required all members to disclose their private financial interests.

   

"President Zuma has used a convenient technicality to side-step this requirement. From his inauguration... the president has dodged the issue for over 1565 days to date. With each passing day suspicion about his integrity mounts," Ramphele said.

   

She said she was disclosing her own financial affairs for the country to scrutinise, in line with the need for accountability, and to set an example for Zuma.

   

"We seem to talk a lot about fighting corruption. Well, today I am going to put my money where my mouth is." 

   

Ramphele said her net worth as of June 27 this year was R55,436,063.

   

She had shares worth R1.38 million in Anglo American, Gold Fields, Sibanye Gold, and the PTI Select Managers Fund.

  

Her primary residence in Camps Bay, Cape Town, was valued at R10m. A total of R1,146,139 was in her retirement annuity, and R1,574,064 in a provident fund.

   

Her family trust held R30m and her investment trust R10.9m.   

 

"My income for the tax year ending 28 February 2013 was R346,000 -- a sizeable drop from previous years due to my resignation from all board commitments... ahead of my entrance into politics."

   

Ramphele said her wealth would not distance her from South Africa's poor.

   

"I am one of many leaders of this country, as with [former] president [Nelson] Mandela, who was not poor," she said.

   

"Being comfortable or having a measure of wealth is not a barrier to linking with poor people. What is a barrier is the abuse of power and stealing from poor people as this government has done consistently."

   

She said the African National Congress had "betrayed the promise of freedom".

   

"Corruption is at the root of that betrayal. If we don't change course now, rampant corruption is going to rob every child, woman, and man of their future," she said.

   

"Corruption is stealing from poor people to benefit the ANC officials, the party and its cronies."

   

She said it had been reported that after nearly 20 years of ANC-led government, up to R385 billion had been stolen because of corruption.

   

"The Auditor General has recently reported that over R30bn of taxpayers' money was wasted or incorrectly spent by government departments across the country in 2012 alone."

   

She said what really "sticks in the throat" was Zuma's private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal. 

   

"The R270 million spent by President Zuma on his lavish homestead could very well have been used to build up to 13,000 low-income houses," Ramphele said. 

   

"The ANC government is spending millions on a discredited arms deal commission designed to cover up their tracks, while at the same time they refuse to provide support to indigent mineworkers and their bereaved families to cover their legal costs." 

   

On Monday the Constitutional Court dismissed an application to compel the State to fund the legal costs of miners wounded and arrested in the Marikana shootings last year.

   

The legal costs relate to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin's platinum mining operations in Marikana, North West, last year.

   

Ramphele said Parliament should not become a "dumping ground for discredited former ministers and premiers", such as former communications minister Dina Pule and former Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale. 

   

-Sapa