Former spy boss Arthur Fraser told the Public Protector's office he'd known about the break-in at Cyril Ramaphosa's Phala Phala farm for at least a year before he laid charges against him – but denied he'd done so with the intent of scuppering the president's hopes of a second term.

In a letter sent to the Public Protector of South Africa (PPSA), an aggrieved Fraser described the question of when he had first become aware of the February 2020 break-in and the cover-up he alleges followed it, as "irrelevant".

"When you raised this question during our interview, you insinuated that my reporting of this crime may have something to do with the ANC national conference, which is to be held in December 2022. I was left with the perception that you regarded me as an accused rather than a whistleblower, and you sought to elevate this 'motive' above the imperative to investigate the alleged criminal and unethical conduct of President Ramaphosa," Fraser stated.

"It is indeed an irrelevant question designed to divert from the real subject of investigation. It insinuates that President Ramaphosa's culpability is dependent upon my motive. It is regrettable that a question about my motive is raised in the face of the serious allegations set out in my statement." 

Despite these reservations, Fraser nonetheless told the PPSA that he had become aware of the Phala Phala break-in in the time period after the head of Ramaphosa's protection unit, Major General Wally Rhoode, began investigating it after 9 February 2020 and before that investigation process was completed in June/July 2021.

In other words, between a year and two years or so before he eventually laid charges against Ramaphosa, which he did in June 2022.

At the time that he said he had become aware of the Phala Phala break-in, Fraser had been serving as the National Commissioner of Correctional Services in the Ramaphosa administration. His term in that position ended in September 2021, shortly after he unlawfully granted medical parole to former president Jacob Zuma. He laid charges against Ramaphosa nine months later.

According to Fraser, Ramaphosa should be investigated for money laundering, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice, among other charges, for allegedly receiving huge amounts of foreign currency - which the president maintains were a deposit on 20 buffalo - and then trying to "cover up" the subsequent theft of that cash, allegedly by Namibian suspects.

A PPSA investigation cleared Ramaphosa of any ethical wrongdoing in relation to the break-in but found that Rhoode had acted improperly by investigating it.

A transcript of his interview with the PPSA now reveals that Fraser claimed he had received information about the Phala Phala break-in from "numerous sources", one of whom he claimed had been part of the team that investigated the break-in with Rhoode.

"I think the people that shared information with me had raised this because they felt that the president and the head of the protection services had operated unlawfully and unethically and they therefore shared information with me," he said.

Explaining why he had decided to lay charges against Ramaphosa over Phala Phala, Fraser told the PPSA that there were "others that feel I could have adopted a different approach, that I could go speak to the president and tell him what I have got on this incident and then find a resolve that benefits me".

"I think it is unethical to adopt the latter approach," he said. 

Fraser insisted any suggestion that he opened his case against the president with an improper motive – as claimed by Ramaphosa's lawyers – "could not be further from the truth".

"Why did I decide to open the case... it is because as a country we have been struggling with this whole concept that has been designed publicly of corruption being the most critical problem in our country. When I in actual fact think it is just one of the symptoms ... our problem is service delivery," he told the PPSA during his Phala Phala interview.

While Fraser has been implicated in serious counterintelligence abuses and the looting of State Security Agency funds during his tenure as one of Zuma’s most trusted spies, transcripts of his interview with PPSA officials reveal how he sought to portray himself as a concerned citizen, committed to the constitutional principles that he is alleged to have flouted.

"I sacrificed my youth to liberate this country. So, it is my plea that everyone honours the Constitution that reflects that we are equal before the law, I think, even as a section ... Chapter 9 institution I think it is quite clear what the law obligates yourselves to do. So, I am just putting that forward to yourselves," he told investigators.

Fraser also tried to suggest that the PPSA’s lead investigator in the Phala Phala case was "being managed by two people who allegedly met him in Ggeberha on behalf of President Ramaphosa" – but provided no evidence to substantiate these claims.

"[T]he people are talking about you," he is recorded as having told the lead investigator in his PPSA transcript.

"So, people are talking about you, they even talk about you and the acting PP [now the current Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka] about engagements when you were in PE. I accept your bona fides [good faith] fully because I have been a public servant. Aspersions have been cast against me that is unwarranted. Yet I think I am a person of integrity. So ... so, similarly when I present my case here to you, I would want to accept that you accept my bona fides also and you investigate to determine the outcome."

Fraser further claimed, again without providing any evidence, that "even with the investigators that I engaged with at the Hawks I was able to advise them that they were approached by parties associated with the president and offered huge remuneration to divert the investigation."

In his written submissions to the PPSA, Fraser insisted that – while making unsubstantiated claims that the lead PPSA investigator was being "managed" – he was not attacking his integrity.

"I deemed it prudent that we be open and frank with each other. Such integrity will ensure that this investigation does not become yet another scandalous exercise in subterfuge, and its report, yet another sinister document designed to pull wool over society's eyes. The truth is a stubborn stain," Fraser stated.

The PPSA transcripts also reveal that one of Fraser's advocates, former National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams, repeatedly sought to advise investigators about what he believed their focus in the Public Protector probe should be.

"If you look at the role of the president it starts very much with the theft and the question is .. what you ought to ask yourself is, where was the money that was allegedly stolen? So, it is not a matter of starting elsewhere, it is a matter of starting on the legitimacy of the money. And the accountability and legitimacy of the money; so, you cannot ignore the theft," he is recorded as saying.