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Things the clean president, Cyril Ramaphosa, got away with.
1. The time he incited violence in Marikana
On August 16, 2012, the police opened fire on hundreds of mine workers from Lonmin Platinum (now Sibanye Stillwater) in Marikana, killing 44 & injuring over 200.
The crime? Protesting for a living wage of R12 500 pm.
At the time, Ramaphosa was a shareholder & exec at Lonmin.
In the Farlam Commission, he admitted to writing emails to SAPS senior officials & the minister, where he characterised the protesters as “dastard criminals” and called for “concomitant action”.
The next day the cops went for blood.
The surviving families filed a lawsuit to hold him personally liable. In July, a High Court found that he had a case to answer for conspiring with the government and SAPS to retaliate against the workers.
But there’s been no repercussions
2. The time we learned his nickname is “Cupcake”
In 2017, leaked private emails showed Ramaphosa was allegedly having affairs with at least 8 women.
The Sunday Independent reported that one of them regularly called him "cupcake". A name that’s stuck.
The real scandal here is that he tried (and failed) to interdict the Sunday Independent from publishing the sordid details of his love affairs.
Gossip value aside, the interdict showed a glimpse of a future president who’s okay with weaponising the courts to bury his skeletons
3. The time an executive at eNCA allegedly ‘donated’ towards his election campaign
Johnny Copelyn, is the CEO of HCI (a JSE listed company) and director of news station eNCA.
Copelyn reportedly donated R2m in 2017 & based on interviews, is a huge supporter of Ramaphosa
Even after his election, eNCA continued to support Ramaphosa.
During the 2019 general elections, they openly displayed Ramaphosa’s face on almost every episode of the show #AsItHappens
Even when the show’s topics had nothing to do with Ramaphosa’s administration
4. The time he begged “young white South Africans” not to leave
This was during a pre-election campaign run in 2019, in a conference with wine (read white) farmers in Stellenbosch.
5. The time he lied about Bosasa ‘donating’ to the campaign via his son
Bosasa was exposed for funnelling monies to a number of ANC ministers & officials, including Ramaphosa & son.
And not for nothing - Bosasa had amassed a fortune to the tune of R12 billion from gov tenders
Ramaphosa first denied it, then concocted a story about his son consulting for Bosasa & eventually conceding that it went into his campaign.
Opposition called for investigations but again, nothing happened.
6. The time he had the court seal his CR17 campaign bank statements
In a nutshell, Ramaphosa does not want the public to know who his donors & beneficiaries are.
According to leaked statements, the recipients included journalists, consultants, judges, private citizens & more
7. The time state resources were allegedly used to rescue a family member
A legislator accused Ramaphosa of sending the SS minister to Botswana to persuade them to drop the charges (money laundering and financing an attempted coup) against his sister in law, Bridgette Motsepe
8. The time he reportedly sanctioned the sale of SAA at R51
Ramaphosa sanctioned the sale of a majority stake in SAA for just R51 to Takatso Consortium.
Apparently Takatso (who own Lift) will reinvest R3bn in an insane deal that will see them assume none of SAA’s debt.
9. The time he was deployed to fix ESKOM eight years ago
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