EFF leader Julius Malema has vowed that his party will not let the Phala Phala scandal go unpunished until President Cyril Ramaphosa is sent to prison to become South Africa’s second jailbird ex-president.
According to Malema, the EFF will see to it that just like his predecessor, former president Jacob Zuma, the first former head of state to sleep in a jail cell after his term in office, Ramaphosa is visited by the same fate for his role in the Phala Phala game farm scandal.
Malema was addressing the media at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg following Monday’s national shutdown which was organised by the red berets.
He said although the demands the EFF advanced on Monday, which included a call for Ramaphosa to step down, had not found expression, the EFF would sustain the offensive until something gave.
“Phala Phala will never end. We are going to get to the bottom of this. For now, it is just the beginning,” said Malema.
“Phala Phala will never end. That thing he [Ramaphosa] did to Zuma of taking Zuma to prison, he has set a precedent. I think he is the next president, in office or out of office, who will go to prison.”
In Malema’s view, Ramaphosa’s “spin” about his involvement in the Phala Phala saga involving the theft of foreign currency at his farm is not going to fly, as it implicates the president directly.
According to him, Ramaphosa’s admission that a Sudanese businessman visited the country on Christmas Day in 2019 carrying more than $500 000 (about R10-million) to buy buffaloes is enough to find the president on the wrong side of the law.
“No one is allowed to trade using foreign currency, and the president has agreed and accepted.”
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