• Cyril Ramaphosa accused of bribing burglars to keep quiet about $4 million heist.
• The former trade unionist says cash came from legitimate game sales.
• He denies kidnapping and bribery of burglars.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in parliament on Thursday that he was the victim of “dirty tricks” in a damaging burglary scandal.

Ramaphosa was accused last week of bribing burglars to keep quiet about a $4 million cash heist at his farmhouse in February 2020.

“In recent days we have seen those who stand to lose the most from the fight against corruption resorting to dirty tricks and intimidation in a bid to get us to back down,” he said in a budget speech.

“But we will not waver. We will not blink. We will finish what has been started,” Ramaphosa said in a speech interrupted by hecklers.

Ramaphosa is a former trade unionist who became a hugely successful businessman in post-apartheid South Africa before entering politics.

He took office in 2018 vowing to clean up the corruption that defined the presidency of his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

South Africa’s former spy boss Arthur Fraser last week reported to police that robbers allegedly broke into Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in the northeast of the country where they found $4 million in cash hidden in furniture.

Ramaphosa hid the heist from police and the tax authorities, Fraser said.

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Instead, Fraser alleged, Ramaphosa organized the kidnapping and questioning of the burglars and then bribed them to keep quiet.

Ramaphosa has acknowledged the burglary but disputes the amount of money involved and says the cash came from legitimate sales of the game at his farm.

He denies the alleged kidnapping and bribery, saying he reported the burglary to the police after he had learned of it.

Ramaphosa will face party members at a conference in December, where the ruling African National Congress may remove him from the top job (ANC).

South Africa’s top anti-corruption official has opened an investigation into the matter.

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