The first state witness in the Phala Phala theft trial has testified that President Cyril Ramaphosa knew that $580,000 from the sale of buffalo was moved from a safe and hidden in a couch on his farm. The trial, which began in the Modimolle Regional Court on Monday, sees three accused individuals plead not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit housebreaking and housebreaking.
The three accused are: self-proclaimed “diamond boy” Imanuwela David; Froliana Joseph, a temporary cleaner at the farm; and her brother, David Joseph. The State's first witness, the acting lodge manager at the time, detailed the events leading up to the theft in February 2020.
The Origin of the Dollars
The witness, whose name is protected by a court order, testified that Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa visited the farm in December 2019 to buy buffalo. The businessman was taken to a camp on the farm where he chose 20 buffalo—17 cows and three bulls—at a cost of R400,000 each.
The manager said he was surprised when Mustafa returned with $580,000 in cash, as sales were normally conducted via bank transfers. Despite his surprise, the manager took the money and wrote an acknowledgement of receipt. He then put the cash in a safe on the farm, which was normally used to store keys and animal documents.
A day after Christmas in 2019, Ramaphosa visited the farm. The acting lodge manager used this opportunity to tell the president about Mustafa's visit and the large cash payment. Ramaphosa allegedly told the manager he would speak to the general manager about the pending sale. The court heard that a final decision on whether to accept the sale had not yet been made.
The Couch and the Break-in
With the general manager still on leave, the acting lodge manager was afraid to leave such a large amount of money in the safe, which was accessible to everyone. The witness testified: “I was afraid to leave that money inside the safe. Everyone had access to the room where the safe was.”
He decided to move the money to the main lodge where the president often stayed, believing it would be the safest place. He hid the money inside a couch in a rarely used bedroom and placed two of the president's golf bags on top of it. The manager testified that he informed Ramaphosa of his plan to move the money to the couch before he did it.
The witness said that when he returned from leave in January 2020, the money was still there. However, on 10 February, he received a call from a housekeeper and discovered the main lodge had been broken into. He found the sliding doors were open, the curtains were drawn, and a window had been forced open, with the handle and lock broken. The CCTV cameras were also broken.
The Accused and Their Lavish Lives
The lodge manager said he tried to contact Ramaphosa, who was out of the country, and eventually got hold of the general manager, who in turn contacted the president. The “head of the bodyguards” then came to the lodge, though the manager did not mention his name.
The State believes that Froliana Joseph, who worked as a cleaner on the farm, was the catalyst for the theft, alerting her co-accused to the hidden cash. However, in a previous interview with News24, Froliana vehemently denied that she had guided the burglars to the loot.
It is the State’s contention that Imanuwela David and two other suspects who are not before the court carried out the theft. The State alleges that the day before the robbery at Phala Phala, the group broke into the wrong, adjacent farm.
A 2022 News24 investigation revealed that David led a lavish life of fast cars and diamond jewellery, even after being deported from Namibia and serving time in jail for illegally entering the country after the robbery. Images and videos David posted on Instagram showed a lavish lifestyle, including diamond-studded “grillz” and a fleet of luxury cars, including two Mercedes-Benz G63s and a Porsche Carrera. In one of the videos, he called himself “diamond boy”.
The trial continues.
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