2022-12-01

Ramaphosa

The president of South Africa had $580K in notes stolen from a farm. He believes that keeping notes stuffed in a sofa is a better idea than keeping them in a safe. And, of course it’s entirely normal to pay cash for a transaction involving more than half a million dollars, and nothing to do with concealing the true nature of the transaction. I’m sure the revelations will be bullish for the rand, as further evidence that South Africa is a well-managed and advanced economy and democracy.

Mr Ramaphosa denies wrongdoing. His version of the story is that the cash taken from the sofa ($580,000, he says) came from the sale of 20 “substandard” buffaloes to a Sudanese businessman on Christmas Day in 2019. The money went in the sofa, he says, because it was thought to be safer than the farm’s safe. After learning of the theft a few weeks later, he reported the matter to his protection team, which is a branch of the police. The president also argues that, while he is the ultimate owner of the game farm, he is not involved in day-to-day operations, and therefore not in breach of constitutional rules regarding conflicts of interest.