Laying bare ANC hypocrisy

It's apposite that the publication of ANC stalwart Mathews Phosa's political memoir has coincided with President Cyril Ramaphosa's pleadings this week before the Constitutional Court in the Phala Phala matter.

- William Saunderson-Meyer

Together, the two events neatly encapsulate the arc of ANC corruption and impunity.

Both involve the ANC's secret and possibly illegal movement of large amounts of foreign cash. In Phosa's case, Libyan money was used to fund the party over many years, including a "substantial" once-off contribution to its 2009 election campaign.

In Ramaphosa's matter, it has been speculated that the American dollars paid by a Sudanese businessman in unreceipted cash to his Phala Phala game farm, and then stolen from where it had been hidden, was to buy support for CR at the ANC's 2022 elective conference.

In his book, Witness to Power, Phosa reveals that during his term of office as ANC treasurer-general, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi made a "substantial" secret donation to the party's 2009 election campaign.