ActionSA wants Public Protector to reopen Phala Phala robbery probe

ActionSA wants the Public Protector to reopen her investigation into the Phala Phala farm matter to probe the abuse of State resources in covering up the 2020 robbery on the president’s farm.

The party said the original report placed emphasis on the conduct of the president and his personal protection unit.

But the party believes the probe needs to be broadened, in light of the findings of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

It wants the role of officials with proximity to the president to also be examined, including his former political advisor, Bejani Chauke.

The Public Protector closed her report on the Phala Phala matter three years ago.

The recommendations included that the head of the President’s Protection Unit, Major General Wally Rhoode and another investigating officer who helped him trace suspects, should face police disciplinary action.

Phala Phala: IPID recommends disciplinary action against one of Ramaphosa’s senior protectors

However, despite IPID’s findings against them, the Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told Parliament last year that they had been cleared of misconduct by a SAPS disciplinary process.

Now, ActionSA said that report is giving rise to questions related to the conduct of others, including Bejani Chauke, the President’s Envoy for Africa, who at the time travelled with the Presidential Protection Unit to Namibia in pursuit of the suspects and the cash.

Said ActionSA chairperson Michael Beaumont: "His involvement in the cross-border mission points to authorisations in the presidency and are evidence of a conspiracy to cover up the Phala Phala robbery extending outside of the SAPS [South African Police Service]."

ActionSA has already called for an inquiry by the parliamentary portfolio committees on the Presidency and police to investigate whether there was a political cover-up.

The African Transformation Movement (ATM), which laid the original complaint with the Public Protector, has, meanwhile, requested Parliament to start a new impeachment process in light of the IPID report, which ActionSA obtained last week, through a promotion of access to information application.

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