EDITORIAL: Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala nightmare
Acting public protector Kholeka Gcaleka’s report has been condemned roundly as a whitewash
The public protector’s final report into the 2020 theft at the president’s private farm was always going to elicit controversy. It is therefore unsurprising that Friday’s report into the Phala Phala scandal has been roundly condemned and derided as a whitewash.
As expected, the acting public protector, Kholeka Gcaleka, released a report that, in effect, clears President Cyril Ramaphosa of having conducted private business. This was not remunerative work, it concluded. Instead, she and her team of mandarins went to great lengths in explaining the concept of remunerative occupation — something that would have found Ramaphosa on the wrong side of the Executive Members Ethics Act, which governs the conduct of ministers, the deputy president and the president. For the president, the punishment would be impeachment...
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