WINDHOEK, Namibia — Namibian investigators had been sizzling on the path of the suspected burglars. After receiving a tip a few sensational heist — the theft of money from a farm belonging to President Cyril Ramaphosa of neighboring South Africa — they’d traced massive cash transfers that the suspects constructed from South African to Namibian financial institution accounts.
All that was left to make a case in opposition to the suspects was to hyperlink the cash to the housebreaking.
However when justice ministry officers in Namibia reached out to their counterparts in South Africa for affirmation, they are saying they obtained an uncommon response that killed their case: silence.
Now, two years later, that silence is elevating new questions on whether or not Mr. Ramaphosa was trying to cover the housebreaking from public view and mobilizing the federal government equipment to assist him accomplish that.
The housebreaking of the president’s farm in South Africa, 650 miles from the border with Namibia, occurred in February 2020 however solely turned extensively identified this month. A political foe of the president leveled bombshell allegations that Mr. Ramaphosa had between $4 million and $8 million in U.S. foreign money stolen from his property, after which lined up the theft to keep away from scrutiny over having massive sums of money tucked away.
The cash had been hidden in furnishings in a home on the president’s Phala Phala recreation farm, based on the political foe, Arthur Fraser, the previous head of state safety in South Africa, who made his allegations in a prison criticism in opposition to Mr. Ramaphosa. The president by no means reported the crime to the police, Mr. Fraser stated, however relied on his private safety unit to conduct an unlawful, off-the-books investigation.
The president has since admitted that his farm was burgled, however has denied any wrongdoing. The cash stolen was far lower than was claimed, he has stated, including that the money got here from the authorized sale of uncommon recreation bred on the farm. A spokesman for Mr. Ramaphosa declined to remark for this text.
Because the president makes an attempt to forge forward together with his common agenda — his farm hosted a recreation public sale on Saturday — he faces a troublesome highway forward. The Hawks, one of many nation’s elite investigative models, are investigating him. Even Mr. Ramaphosa’s allies fear about potential prison fees related to allegations that he hid massive sums of international foreign money — from cash laundering to breaking tax or international alternate legal guidelines.
Mr. Ramaphosa, within the thick of a battle this 12 months to be re-elected because the chief of his social gathering, the African Nationwide Congress, has remained largely silent.
Even the supervisor of Phala Phala, Hendrik von Wielligh, conceded in a quick phone interview that it was uncommon to stash cash from recreation gross sales on the home. Requested what normally occurred with the proceeds, he stated curtly, “Usually to the financial institution.” Mr. von Wielligh declined to debate the theft, saying that “the those that investigated” had warned him to not discuss to the press as a result of it will complicate the investigation, and presumably scare off witnesses.
Mr. Fraser, who himself is dealing with allegations of corruption throughout his tenure as head of state safety, is a detailed ally of the previous president Mr. Ramaphosa pushed out, Jacob Zuma. Mr. Zuma’s allies have been looking for to discredit Mr. Ramaphosa in any method they’ll as they combat his re-election bid.
The criticism filed by Mr. Fraser resurrected what in any other case was a seemingly forgotten case. But it surely was one which Namibian authorities took nice curiosity in two years in the past.
In interviews carried out in 2020, a couple of months after the housebreaking, two Namibian law enforcement officials and two senior authorities officers stated that informants had alerted the police that males who burgled Mr. Ramaphosa’s farm had fled to Namibia. The officers and officers requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the case.
A confidential investigative report written by a Namibian police official in June 2020 particulars allegations that U.S. {dollars} hidden inside a settee at Mr. Ramaphosa’s farm had been stolen by a person in Namibian custody on unrelated fees. That report, which lately leaked on-line, additionally stated that officers from South Africa and Namibia had mentioned the housebreaking, although it appears the South African authorities finally stopped cooperating when Namibian regulation enforcement requested official help. There additionally had been discussions “allegedly ongoing between the nations’ two presidents,” the report stated.
Hage Geingob, Namibia’s president, has denied doing any favors for Mr. Ramaphosa concerning the housebreaking. And Namibian regulation enforcement officers insist that they did all the things by the ebook.
“It isn’t in my tradition to cover a criminal offense,” Martha Imalwa, Namibia’s prosecutor basic, who tried to get info on the housebreaking suspects from South African authorities, stated in an interview. “We will’t power one other jurisdiction to help.”
Round April 2020, weeks after the burglars had been stated to have made off with the money, Namibian police stopped a Ford Ranger pickup truck within the Namibian capital, Windhoek. Legal informants in Namibia had advised the police that the occupants of the automobile had been concerned in a theft at Mr. Ramaphosa’s farm, based on the 2 law enforcement officials and one of many senior authorities officers.
A type of suspects, Erkki Shikongo, stated in an interview that the police held him and his cousin on the police station whereas they turned the automobile inside out. They used instruments to disassemble components of the truck to look it, he stated.
“They only stated, ‘We’re looking for one thing,’” Mr. Shikongo recalled. When he requested what they had been looking for, they’d not inform him, he stated.
The police discovered nothing and launched Mr. Shikongo with out fees.
Mr. Shikongo and his cousin, Petrus Muhekeni, had been among the many 5 housebreaking suspects who Mr. Fraser named in his criticism. However each Mr. Shikongo and Mr. Muhekeni denied any involvement within the housebreaking. They stated in separate interviews that they solely realized about what had occurred after information studies surfaced and so they had been inundated with calls from journalists.
Whereas the authorities have flagged his money transfers, Mr. Shikongo stated his cash didn’t come from stealing from the president, however from shopping for and promoting gold all through southern Africa. Mr. Shikongo stated he would haven’t any drawback going to courtroom to show his innocence.
“I’m not afraid of something,” he stated. “I wish to make sure that my title have to be cleared.”
The primary public whiff of the housebreaking at Mr. Ramaphosa’s farm began with a secular crime: Imanuwela David, a Namibian-born man who holds a South African passport, sneaked into Namibia in June 2020 by taking a canoe throughout the Orange River.
Mr. David’s arrest for illegally coming into the nation shortly turned a sensational media story. Particulars emerged that he was aided by a police officer and the chief government of Namibia’s state-owned fishing firm, which was embroiled in a corruption scandal often known as “Fishrot.” Hypothesis swirled that Mr. David might have been concerned in Fishrot.
The police stated he had introduced 11 notes of U.S. foreign money every price $100 into Namibia. He had a TAG Heuer and a Rolex watch, a gold chain and 4 cellphones. The police additionally stated on the time that Mr. David was a fugitive in South Africa, linked to a housebreaking there. They gave few particulars in regards to the case, however one report in The Namibian Solar valued the quantity stolen at 65 million Namibian {dollars} — about $4 million U.S. — the identical quantity Mr. Fraser talked about in his criticism in opposition to Mr. Ramaphosa this month.
Though the Namibian police launched few particulars publicly on the time, the confidential investigative report means that they could have identified greater than they shared.
Produced on June 21, 2020, eight days after Mr. David’s arrest, the report stated there was info indicating that he was concerned in “a burglary and theft” at a farm belonging to Mr. Ramaphosa. (The report, nevertheless, names a special farm owned by the president, not the one which was robbed.)
The memo gave different particulars that may additionally floor in Mr. Fraser’s criticism two years later — {that a} lady on the property found the cash and advised others about it; that the cash was hidden in furnishings; that Mr. David was a central participant within the housebreaking.
The confidential report was created by Nelius Becker, the top of prison investigations for Namibia’s nationwide police on the time. Mr. Becker stated in a latest interview that he had shared it with two different senior officers and that it was supposed to stay confidential. He additionally stated that, to his information, the Namibian police by no means tried to quash or cowl up any investigation.
However his report does describe a gathering between high-level authorities from Namibia and South Africa by which it seems that the South Africans tried to strain their neighbors. Through the assembly, which happened at a border space often known as “no man’s land,” a South African official confirmed that one thing had occurred on the farm however that no case was filed, based on the memo. The official stated that Mr. David was the mastermind behind the housebreaking.
“As a result of sensitivity of the matter and the envisaged fallout it would create in South Africa, they requested that the matter is dealt with with discretion,” Mr. Becker wrote within the report.
In a latest information launch, Lt. Gen. Sebastian Ndeitunga, the top of the Namibian police, sought to mood any suggestion of impropriety. The assembly, on June 19, 2020, was merely to “share operational info” about Mr. David and different folks suspected of stealing cash in South Africa and fleeing to Namibia, Common Ndeitunga stated.
Nonetheless, what unfolded within the subsequent weeks appears to counsel that Namibia was way more zealous in its pursuit of Mr. David and the opposite suspects than the South African authorities.
Namibian investigators tracked the banking exercise of Mr. David, Mr. Shikongo and a 3rd man, Petrus Afrikaner, over the course of a number of months. They recorded 6.7 million Namibian {dollars}’ ($416,000) price of transactions, based on one of many senior authorities officers.
Namibian prosecutors had been trying to construct a money-laundering case in opposition to the boys. So that they drafted a request for assist establishing the sources of the suspects’ funds and whether or not they had been derived from illegal actions, stated Yvonne Dausab, the Namibian justice minister, in a textual content message. On Aug. 14, 2020, the Namibia Excessive Fee in South Africa delivered the request to the South African Division of Worldwide Relations and Cooperation, to be forwarded to the Justice Division, Ms. Dausab stated. South African officers by no means responded, she stated.
Chrispin Phiri, a spokesman for South Africa’s justice ministry, stated in a press release on Tuesday that the company had no official document of a request from Namibian authorities concerning the suspects within the farm theft.
With out that info, the Namibian authorities might not freeze the property of the suspects or pursue a case in opposition to them.
Lynsey Chutel contributed reporting.
