Ramaphosa’s evidence on Bosasa payment does not add up, Maimane says

Parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s evidence to public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane regarding the R500,000 payment made out to his ANC presidential campaign by Bosasa do not add up, opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said on Tuesday. In November 2018, Maimane confronted Ramaphosa with documentation showing that an October 2017 payment of R500,000 had gone from Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson’s personal account into the account of a Bosasa-linked company, and then into a trust account for Ramaphosa’s son, Andile. When he answered Maimane in parliament, Ramaphosa says, he believed the payment in question was connected to the documents that Andile had previously shown him. He therefore answered that the money came from a legitimate business contract and stressed that, if his son had done anything illegal, he would take him to the police station himself. Within days, the president says he established that the money was in fact a donation to his CR17 campaign from Watson. He is adamant this was a ...