South Africa’s corruption watchdog said on Tuesday it will invoke subpoena powers to extract responses from President Cyril Ramaphosa over the alleged concealment of a theft at his luxury farmhouse.
The Public Protector office said a deadline for Ramaphosa to answers questions related to the break-in expired on Monday, after it denied a request for an extension.
“We intend to subpoena the information we require from the president,” watchdog spokesman Oupa Segalwe said.
The body opened a probe in June over potential breaches of the executive ethics code after Ramaphosa was suspected of offering hush money to burglars over a February 2020 heist at his game farmhouse, where it is alleged $4 million in cash was stolen.
The case has heightened tensions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and piled pressure on the President stems from a security report filed by former national spy chief Arthur Fraser.
Fraser in June alleged that robbers broke into Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in the northeast of the country where they found the cash hidden in furniture.
Ramaphosa hid the heist from police and the tax authorities, Fraser alleged, accusing the head of state of organising the kidnapping and questioning of the robbers, and then bribing them into silence.
Ramaphosa has acknowledged the burglary but denies the alleged kidnapping and bribery, saying he reported the burglary to the police.
He has also disputed the amount of money involved and said the cash came from legitimate sales of game from his farm.
Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya said the president’s lawyers were in communication with the office of the public protector.