Acting South African police minister Firoz Cachalia has confirmed that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) report into the 2020 burglary at president Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm has been declassified, yet remains out of public reach.
Responding to a written parliamentary question from the African Transformation Movement (ATM), Cachalia revealed that the report’s ‘top secret’ status was lifted on 2 February after Ipid reconsidered the original grounds for classification.
“After considering the initial reasons for the ‘top secret’ classification and public interest, Ipid came to a decision that the classification is no longer serving the purpose,” Cachalia says.
In the same breath, he made clear the report is not for general release.
Ipid reports, he stressed, “are not for public consumption” and can only be accessed through formal legal channels.
Anyone seeking access must apply under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
The report was originally classified as ‘top secret’ by police minister on special leave Senzo Mchunu, who argued that secrecy was necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation, safeguard witnesses and shield implicated police members from premature public exposure before trial.
At the heart of the Ipid probe were allegations that VIP protection officers assigned to Ramaphosa conducted an extensive and questionable search in Namibia following the theft of United States dollars allegedly concealed at the president’s Limpopo game farm.
While reports by the public protector and the South African Reserve Bank into aspects of the Phala Phala saga have been made public, the Ipid document remained tightly sealed without a detailed explanation for its continued secrecy.
Now declassified but still restricted, the report’s status is likely to intensify political scrutiny rather than quell it – especially from ATM and ActionSA. – IOL News
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