While African National Congress (ANC) president Cyril Ramaphosa availed himself to answer questions on his CR17 campaign that won him the seat of power in the ANC, the state capture commission makes no findings against him.
In the third installment of the inquiry’s report into Bosasa, the commission said that the Public Protector had already dealt with it and that it was before the courts.
There have been demands for the unsealing of the records that reveal names of those who contributed to Ramaphosa’s multi-million rand campaign to become ANC president at the 2017 elective conference.
The commission was empowered to look into allegations of state capture and widespread corruption in the public sector.
While there’s damning evidence against his comrades and members of his executive in the state capture report, President Ramaphosa seems to have ducked the bullet once again, with the commission opting not to dig further into concerns that funders of his campaign were now beneficiaries of state contracts.
And while he denied knowing of any wrongdoing on the part of his party, he did accept that the ANC took donations from a corruption-accused company, which he referred to as a major lapse.
Ramaphosa’s son Andile, who did business with Bosasa, also featured in the report.
South Africans are likely to understand the commission’s view of Ramaphosa’s role during some parts of this period as he was the country’s number two during the era of widespread corruption.