Cape Town — Former president Thabo Mbeki met with senior African National Congress (ANC) leaders at Luthuli House in Johannesburg yesterday. The discussion focused on a letter Mbeki had sent to the party, in which he criticised the ANC’s handling of the 2020 robbery at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm in Phala Phala, Limpopo province. The theft, alleged to involve around US$4 million from the sale of game, was never reported to the police. The issue resurfaced after former intelligence chief Arthur Fraser charged Ramaphosa with concealing the crime from both the police and the South African Revenue Service. According to a Daily Maverick report, Ramaphosa was also accused of using the head of his presidential protection unit to recover the money and keep the matter quiet.
Parliament later voted not to adopt a report that could have led to Ramaphosa’s impeachment. The vote, originally scheduled for 6 December 2022, was postponed to 13 December 2022. Both the ANC’s National Working Committee and its National Executive Committee rallied behind Ramaphosa, rejecting the damaging findings.
The ANC told public broadcaster SABC News that the meeting with Mbeki was “an opportunity to get guidance.” “This is an opportunity for the leadership of the ANC to put their heads together to get counsel, to gain wisdom, and to engage with our former president, and to come to certain conclusions,” ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu‑Motsiri said. President Cyril Ramaphosa did not attend the meeting.
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