South African apex court on Thursday cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa of charges of misleading the parliament about a donation to his 2017 election campaign for the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC), reported Africa News.
The ruling comes after Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane found in 2019 that Ramaphosa had misled the National Assembly by lying to a question asked to him by an opposition lawmaker the previous year. She said there was also evidence of money laundering, conflict of interest, and personal enrichment. The charges prompted President Ramaphosa to challenge the legality of her report.
The South African High Court dismissed the report last year and the Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld that decision.
“The Public Protector was wrong on the facts and on the law with regard to the issue that the president had wilfully misled parliament,” said Justice Chris Jafta.
Justice Jafta said there was no evidence to support money-laundering allegations or to prove that the president had personally benefitted from campaign donations. He added that investigations into the private affairs of political parties were outside Mkhwebane’s jurisdiction.
The allegations against Ramaphosa date back to November 2018, when Mmusi Maimane, the then leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, asked him to explain about a 500,000 rand ($35,000) payment that was made to his son by the head of a South African company named African Global Operations (AGO).
Ramaphosa explained his son, Andile, had carried out paid work for the company. One week later, he changed his answer and said that the payment was in fact a donation to his electoral campaign to succeed ex-president Jacob Zuma as head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.
The Public Protector then launched an investigation into the matter to investigate whether Ramaphosa had intentionally misled the South African Parliament.
