‘The investigation is closed’: Gcaleka clears Ramaphosa on leaked audio clip

Acting public protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka has cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa in the investigation into a recording where he can be heard saying he was aware of how public funds were used for certain political campaigns within the ANC.

Gcaleka said there was no evidence that the president contravened any provisions in the executive code of ethics. 

“Evidence obtained indicates that prior to the president making these utterances, it was widely reported, even in the Zondo commission, on the misuse of public funds for the ruling party's political gains. There is no evidence upon which the PPSA can find that the president contravened any provisions of the code,” she said.

Gcaleka investigated allegations that Ramaphosa violated the code in that he failed to inform and provide evidence to all relevant investigative authorities regarding the alleged misuse of state funds for party-political activities in order for them to investigate.

This follows a complaint lodged on January 26 and February 7 by MP Mervyn Dirks which was based on a leaked audio recording widely circulated in December 2021.

In the audio, leaked to the Daily News last year, Ramaphosa can be heard saying: “One of the officials said, as these people from the State Security [Agency] testify [at the state capture commission], one of the officials said soon they will be revealing about how money was used for some campaigns, and I said I would rather they say you got money from this business for CR17 than for the public to finally hear that their public money was used to advance certain campaigns.”

Gcaleka said having analysed Dirks’ complaint, she focused the investigation on whether Ramaphosa violated the code when he failed to inform relevant investigative authorities that he had knowledge and evidence regarding the misuse of public funds for the 54th National Conference of the ANC, held in 2017.

“In the circumstances, the public protector is satisfied that the utterances of the president in the audio was not in violation of the code. Accordingly, the investigation is closed,” she said.

Regarding  Dirks' allegations that the public protector's office is shielding Ramaphosa from scrutiny, Gcaleka said this was unfounded.

“He says the president’s leaked remarks arose as he was being asked about the funders of the CR17 campaign. It is crucial for us to emphasise that Dirks’ complaint, as you will see in the report, was never about CR17. In any event, we could not reinvestigate CR17.

"We agree with the Constitutional Court’s confirmation of an earlier ruling of the high court that the executive code of ethics is unconstitutional as it does not require members of the executive who are subject to the code to disclose donations made to internal party political election campaigns.”

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