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The SAPS has declined ActionSA’s PAIA application for access to crucial documentation pertaining to the prosecution of the suspects accused of robbing the Phala Phala farm. 

Included in this request is the President’s affidavit which was deposed as part of the investigation into the Phala Phala robbery which documented the amount of cash stolen from the President’s farm. The other documentation requested is the NPA’s cashflow analysis which has revealed R15 million in financial transactions which flowed through just one of the three accused following the robbery. 

The SAPS have cited incorrect provisions in law which exclude documentation requested for criminal or civil proceedings from being provided to requesters in a PAIA application. ActionSA has not requested this information for either criminal or civil proceedings, and how the SAPS is able to assert the party’s intentions remains unknown. 

For this reason, ActionSA has filed an internal appeal with the SAPS and will thereafter take the matter to the Information Regulator should the appeal be unsuccessful. 

The fact that the NPA has, as part of its prosecution of the accused robbers, produced an analysis that directly contradicts the President’s version on the amount of funds stolen, shows that the President committed a crime and violated his oath of office. 

The Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act makes it a criminal offense to under declare a serious financial crime. It is also fraud and perjury for a person to deliberately falsify information to the SAPS in order to limit criminal liability for the amount of undisclosed foreign currency. 

Last week, during oral questions to the security cluster, the Deputy Police Minister appeared on behalf of the Acting Police Minister. ActionSA posed him a question of whether he would commit to providing the information requested in our PAIA application and he simply re—read the same generic answer he gave to a different and unrelated question. This is how seriously the GNU takes this matter. 

ActionSA will continue to pursue this information until it is in our possession and available to the South African people. The President must account for the various aspects of Phala Phala that clearly constitute criminality and a violation of his oath of office and every action by government departments and coalition partners aimed at shielding the President must be exposed and challenged.

Issued by ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont