In his response to the Public Protector, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s head of Presidential Protection Service, Wally Rhoode, has revealed the roles allegedly played by the President and his Namibian counterpart, Hage Geingob, in the aftermath of the Phala Phala farm robbery where millions of US dollars were stolen.
The Phala Phala farm in Bela-Bela, Limpopo is owned by Ramaphosa where it is reported that five Namibian nationals broke into it and stole an undisclosed amount of US dollars estimated to between $4-million and $8-million on February 9, 2020.
Shortly after the robbery, the men, who were residing in Cape Town at the time, went on a shopping spree buying cars, jewellery and apartments in the Mother City after changing the dollars at a local Chinese-owned forex exchange. Some drove their new flashy cars to Namibia while others remained in Cape Town.
Four sources told Sunday Independent this week that Rhoode “opened a can of worms” in his response to a public protector inquiry and revealed damning information, some of it not even in the public domain.
Rhoode, in his response, reportedly confirms that he drove to “no man’s land” – a neutral place on the borders of the two countries – to meet with some senior members of the Namibian police force on Ramaphosa’s instructions. The meeting came days after Namibian police arrested one of the alleged robbers, Erkki Shikongo, in Windhoek, the country’s capital, after receiving a tip-off that he was driving a Ford Ranger allegedly bought with the money from the robbery.
Rhoode also revealed to the PP questions that he was accompanied on that trip by Ramaphosa’s adviser, Bejani Chauke.
He added that Namibian President, Geingob, allegedly sent a helicopter to fetch him and Chauke and took them to the state house where they spent a night. It is believed that more meetings were held at the state house between Rhoode, Chauke and senior Namibian officers including Geingob himself.
At the time, Namibian police were investigating a large amount of cash, believed to have been stolen from Ramaphosa’s farm, deposited in various bank accounts in the country and used to buy luxury vehicles and properties by the men linked to the robbery.
Some of the cash was also allegedly used to bribe government officers who came to know about their source of the bounty.
Source: IOL
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