$14,000 deal threatens Ramaphosa’s re-election

&NewLine;<p>South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s son Andile admitted has admitted that he was paid &dollar;140&comma;000 by a company facing extensive corruption allegations&comma; an admission that could embarrass his father ahead of polls&period;<br>&NewLine;President Ramaphosa has sought&comma; ahead of elections on May 8&comma; to de-toxify the ruling African National Congress which has been embroiled in numerous graft scandals since coming to power in 1994&period;<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It was a severe oversight on our part&comma;” Andile told the News24 site of a &dollar;16&comma;000-a-month deal his company signed with the Bosasa group in December 2017&period;<br>&NewLine;Bosasa&comma; which is now African Global Operations&comma; was a conglomerate involved in bidding for and running lucrative government contracts&period;<br>&NewLine;Several suspects including the company’s former chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi appeared at the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court Wednesday over the alleged theft of &dollar;120 million from contracts with the prisons service&period;<br>&NewLine;The case was postponed to July&period;<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is clear now with the benefit of hindsight that our due diligence was insufficient in retrospect of my father’s role going into the Presidency&comma;” Andile Ramaphosa told News24&period;<br>&NewLine;His company&comma; Blue Crane Capital&comma; was contracted to provide advice on more than 20 public and private sector contracts in Uganda and Kenya&period;<br>&NewLine;There is no suggestion Andile Ramaphosa or his company were involved in the alleged corruption at the centre of the ongoing criminal case&period;<br>&NewLine;Agrizzi&comma; the former Bosasa executive&comma; has made sweeping corruption allegations against government officials including ministers who served during former president Jacob Zuma’s time in office&period;<br>&NewLine;He told a judicial commission probing government graft that Bosasa made monthly payments of about &dollar;2&comma;200 to the Jacob Zuma foundation&period;<br>&NewLine;The money&comma; hidden in a luxury bag&comma; was received through foundation president Dudu Myeni&comma; Agrizzi alleged&period;<br>&NewLine;Zuma resigned on February 14&comma; 2018 after multiple corruption scandals&period;<br>&NewLine;He is fighting 16 charges of fraud&comma; corruption&comma; and racketeering related to a 1990s arms deal struck when he was deputy president&period; He denies any wrongdoing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;