Unruffled Ramaphosa pockets a cool million dollars at glitzy game auction
As a smear campaign broke around him, the deputy president attended an auction at the luxury Zebula estate where his consortium sold R116m worth of game
Facing allegations of extramarital affairs he says are a smear campaign to prevent him taking over the ANC leadership, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa sat calmly next to his wife as an auctioneer sold more than $1m of his rare Ugandan cattle, buffaloes and antelope. While he fended off the accusations, which broke on social media on Friday and in the Sunday Independent newspaper two days later, that he had affairs with at least eight women, his adversaries are likely to keep up attacks on him in the run-up to the ANC’s leadership elections in December. His wealth may open him up to more criticism. Ramaphosa, 64, is one of the richest black South Africans and is married to the sister of the country’s only black dollar billionaire, Patrice Motsepe. Opponents previously targeted him for his fortune and an interest in the wildlife industry after he made a R19.5m bid for a buffalo in 2012. Ramaphosa’s shareholding in mines owned by Lonmin and ownership of a local McDonald’s franchise we...
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