Politicians did not meddle in Phala Phala probe — Kganyago

• Governor: We work independently

No politicians, President Cyril Ramaphosa included, interfered in the Reserve Bank’s investigation of the theft of dollars from the president’s Phala Phala game farm, governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Thursday.

“Politicians cannot come into any of the investigations that the Reserve Bank is dealing with. We have made it very clear that we work independently and any other South African would’ve been subjected to the same processes [as Ramaphosa],” he said.

Kganyago was speaking at a dialogue hosted by financial services company PSG Konsult. He told participants that the Bank investigation focused only on potential exchange control violations. No other allegations were in its mandate. “We have gone through so many legal opinions, and I have no doubt that the advice that we were given was the best,” he said.

The investigation, launched after former spy chief Arthur Fraser lodged a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa for allegedly keeping millions of dollars in cash illegally at his farm, cleared Ramaphosa of exchange control violations much to the displeasure of opposition political parties that had laid the compliant with the central bank and the public protector.

The public protector also cleared Ramaphosa.

The Bank, which released its report in August, said it could not find whether Ramaphosa contravened the control regulations, saying that the sale of buffaloes in question was not a “perfected transaction”.

It explained that because the sale of buffalo to Sudanese business person Hazim Mustafa — the source of the dollars — was never concluded as the animals were not delivered, there was no legal obligation on Ramaphosa or Ntaba Nyoni to declare the foreign currency under exchange control regulations.

The findings prompted allegations of a cover-up by the Bank. Opposition parties the DA, EFF and ATM announced that they would take the report on judicial review. Kganyago said: “The report itself has not been released because, by law, we could not release that report. When we are in court, we will ventilate it there. My investigators will file a replying affidavit.

“The court is the final arbiter about whether the laws have been interpreted correctly or not,” he said.

Kganyago defended the bank’s independence, which has come under fire from within the ANC. Some senior ANC members have called for the central bank’s mandate to be changed and for it to play a bigger role in supporting the economy.

“None of the political parties came to engage us and said that ‘we think your independence must go’. But even if they were to come and say, ‘your independence must go’, we will tell them go change the constitution,” said Kganyago.

“If anybody wants to change the mandate of the Reserve Bank, they would have to change the constitution.”

THE COURT IS THE FINAL ARBITER ABOUT WHETHER THE LAWS HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED CORRECTLY OR NOT