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Ramaphosa takes aim at ‘unlawful’ FIC leak

Bu­sisiwe Mkhwe­bane

President Cyril Ramaphosa has accused the financial intelligence unit of unlawfully leaking bank account statements linked to his 2017 ANC election campaign that are at the centre of his legal dispute with public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

If Ramaphosa’s lawyers can show Mkhwebane obtained financial intelligence about his campaign funding unlawfully, and used it as evidence illegally, they will have powerful grounds to seek the review of her CR17 campaign report.

The controversy over a R500,000 donation from corruption accused Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson, who died in a car crash this week, has been seized upon by Ramaphosa’s political opponents. The conflict has even raised questions about whether he will survive a fightback against his attempts to clean up the state after the corruptionplagued Jacob Zuma years.

Ramaphosa’s lawyers suggested that the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) provided confidential bank records to Mkhwebane without having a legal basis to do so, and have questioned why it provided information beyond what she had asked for.

The FIC is mandated to identify the proceeds of crime, and combat money laundering and terror financing through the analysis of financial data and provision of financial intelligence to the authorities.

The financial intelligence unit is now under pressure to explain how it provided Ramaphosa’s records to the public protector and why, or face accusations of legal incompetence.

Ramaphosa’s lawyers have also asked Pretoria high court

deputy judge-president Aubrey Ledwaba to seal the FIC’s report on the ANC president’s election campaign accounts, on the basis that the report contains information that is “confidential and relates to the personal affairs of the individuals mentioned in those documents”.

In a letter sent to FIC director Xolisile Khanyile last week, Ramaphosa’s attorney Peter Harris questioned why the centre provided more than two years’ worth of records to Mkhwebane, when she had asked only for statements linked to the Watson donation.

Harris asked that Khanyile clarify exactly which provisions of the FIC Act she relied on, and “for what purpose” to “request and receive” statements from banks for all the accounts linked to Ramaphosa’s campaign funding. He also asked that Khanyile confirm whether or not the FIC obtained a warrant for these statements, and whether the unit had ensured that Mkhwebane’s request complied with the law.

The FIC, which has previously refused requests for comment from Business Day, did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

The lawyers’ letter appears to form part of a full-frontal attack on much of the evidence used by Mkhwebane to reach her finding that the Ramaphosa campaign, which saw him narrowly defeat Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for the ANC leadership, may have been implicated in money laundering, and to then demand that he disclose all his funders.

Ramaphosa has described Mkhwebane’s report on his campaign funding as legally and factually flawed, and is in the process of challenging its validity in the high court in Pretoria. As part of the president’s review application, his lawyers have been given the so-called “Rule 53” record of evidence that Mkhwebane used to make her findings against him.

They previously persuaded Ledwaba to seal bank statements linked to Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign, on the basis that they contained confidential donor information.

At the time, Mkhwebane’s office expressed her unhappiness with Ledwaba’s decision.

Within a day, much of that information was leaked to various media outlets.

In a letter sent to Mkhwebane last week, Harris said as the documents in question were only in the possession of the public protector and Ramaphosa’s lawyers, “we are extremely concerned that the documents may have been leaked from your office”. Mkhwebane’s office has consistently denied any wrongdoing and continues to insist she is not the only person who had access to the information.