South African prosecutors decide not to charge Ramaphosa in 'Farmgate' scandal
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00:00The real South African president put the farm gate behind him.
00:03Corruption charges were finally dropped against Cyril Ramaphosa in a case that nearly brought
00:09down the president two years ago.
00:11He was accused of trying to hide the theft of $4 million in cash at his game farm in
00:16the Limpopo province.
00:18The president denied any wrongdoing.
00:20Tom Kennedy has been following the story from Cape Town.
00:26The investigation the National Prosecuting Authority here has found there is not enough
00:31evidence to charge Cyril Ramaphosa with corruption over the so-called farm gate scandal which
00:37dates back to 2020 when thieves broke into his Limpopo farm and stole up to $4 million
00:44US in cash.
00:45Now that was only brought to light when Arthur Fraser, a former intelligence boss here in
00:50South Africa, made allegations of corruption, kidnapping, bribery and money laundering related
01:00to the case.
01:01He also alleged that that cash was stashed there to avoid South African foreign currency
01:06laws.
01:07Now, Ramaphosa came back and did acknowledge that breaking did happen, although he denied
01:13wrongdoing.
01:14He said that he made the money through selling buffalo on his game farm and this case has
01:20been extremely political.
01:22Arthur Fraser was a close ally of Jacob Zuma who was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa after
01:30he stepped down from allegations of corruption and since then has been a fierce opponent
01:36of Ramaphosa and it's also reflective of divisions within the ANC of members who support the
01:43President and those who are critical of him, but Thursday's decision obviously very positive
01:50for those standing behind Cyril Ramaphosa.