“It is a great imprudence to employ one’s enemy”: Cyril Ramaphosa will be able to meditate on the moral of this fable by La Fontaine. The South African head of state learned it the hard way when, on June 1, the scandal now known as “Farmgate” broke out. The preposterous plot is set in his Phala Phala farm, a 4,500-hectare estate located in the northeast of the country, where buffaloes, black antelopes, golden wildebeests, white impalas, and long-horned Ankole zebus – the breed President’s favorite. From this rare game sold at exorbitant prices, Ramaphosa made his fortune. But now part of this hoard has evaporated during a burglary that the president wanted to keep secret.
More than 4 million dollars in cash were allegedly stolen from her property in February 2020, a break-in organized by the domestic employee with the complicity of a few bandits, who only had to lift the mattresses to seize the treasure ! This is at least the version told, at the beginning of June, by a mysterious plaintiff to the police in the upscale district of Rosebank, in Johannesburg. And that’s not all: not wanting to make the case public, the president would have instructed his guard to track down the brigands without saying a word, to inflict a correction on them, then to buy their silence at the price of 9000 euros each.
The spy through whom the scandal came
The case falls at the worst time for the president. Elected in 2018 on the promise of zero tolerance against corruption after the scandal-ridden presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), Ramaphosa challenged his mandate in December, on the occasion of his party’s conference, the African National Congress (ANC), supposed to nominate him as a candidate for the 2024 election.
With all these precautions, the story should not have leaked. It would have been to misunderstand the networks of the informer. This is none other than Arthur Fraser, the former boss of spies under the Zuma era, predecessor and sworn enemy of Ramaphosa. “The president has employed wolves and vultures in his administration, he is now paying the price,” notes political scientist Mcebisi Ndletyana, from the University of Johannesburg. However, Ramaphosa had taken care, as soon as he was invested, to withdraw the management of the secret service agency from Fraser, who was then appointed director of the penitentiary services. Mistake !
Faithful to Jacob Zuma, Fraser used and abused his duties to save his 80-year-old friend, imprisoned for corruption on July 8, 2021 against a backdrop of riots unprecedented since the end of apartheid. Two months later, Fraser signed the ex-leader’s conditional release on medical grounds. His contract as head of the prison administration has, according to the South African media, not been renewed.
Clan warfare in the ANC
Having lost neither his long arm nor his big ears, the former spymaster got wind of this curious burglary and jumped at the chance to settle his accounts. “There is no doubt that this case is part of the factional war within the ANC between the Zuma and Ramaphosa clans, analyzes Piers Pigou, researcher at the International Crisis Group in South Africa. struggle for power.”
Accused of kidnapping, corruption and obstruction of justice, Cyril Ramaphosa denies any wrongdoing. But his defense seems shaky. The president admits the existence of a theft, but of a sum “much less” than that presumed. Questions remain. Why did you hide these bundles? Have they been declared to the tax authorities? Why did you conceal this burglary? “Even if the amount is lower, it surely represents a lot of money, at a time when South Africa is hit by the economic crisis and is suffering from rampant inflation, which amplifies popular anger”, slips a European diplomat in post in Pretoria.
The scandal also casts an additional shadow on Nelson Mandela’s historic party, which has been in constant erosion in recent years. If he is indicted, Cyril Ramaphosa will, in theory, have to withdraw his candidacy. A rule that he himself imposed on his training. Once again, the ANC and the whole country are on the precipice.