(3 minutes read)
No exchange control laws were violated in the reported ‘transaction’ between President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm and a Sudanese businessman with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). The Reserve Bank published the limited findings of its investigation into the matter, where the matter was seemingly set aside on a technicality.
No exchange control laws were violated in the reported ‘transaction’ between President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm and a Sudanese businessman with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). The Reserve Bank published the limited findings of its investigation into the matter, where the matter was seemingly set aside on a technicality. However, the SARB found that, based on the facts available, there was no violation of the country’s exchange control laws because there was no “perfected transaction” to require a declaration on the part of the farm.
The investigation specifically centered around the Phala Phala buffalo transaction that took place before the alleged theft of millions of rands in foreign currency. Questions have surrounded the source of the money since the scandal broke, with the president claiming in 2022 that it came from a typical sale on the farm, where Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa purchased 20 buffalo. Given the size of the transaction in question – $580,000 – the questionable way in which the money was allegedly and infamously stored, and the murky conditions under which it was stolen from the farm, complainants were certain that the country’s exchange control laws must have been violated in some way.
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In its findings, the central bank concluded that the transaction in question was subject to conditions precedent which were not fulfilled. More plainly, the buffalo purchased with the money were never delivered – thus the Phala Phala farm (Nyoni Estates CC) was not entitled to the money in the first place and didn’t meet the conditions necessary to declare it.
