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.

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