CR17 Bank Statements

The CR17 Bank Statements relate to bank accounts belonging to donors who funded the CR17 campaign- Cyril Ramaphosa's successful bid in 2017 to become the president of the African National Congress (ANC) against Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Background

The bank statements were sealed in August 2019 following a ruling by North Gauteng (Pretoria) High Court Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba, who agreed with Ramaphosa’s lawyers that it contained personal information and the information could have been illegally obtained.^[1]

Speaking in Parliament in November 2020, Ramaphosa said he had no control over making the bank accounts public and urged that a court process challenging the sealing of the statements to be allowed to unfold. The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) opposed the unsealing of the documents. He said:

“The bank statements are from accounts over which I do not have any form of control. They belong to entities and private companies which I do not control and whose affairs are protected by the country’s privacy laws. It is therefore not within my power."

^[2]

Legal Battle

AmaBhungane went to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) seeking an order to open the statements arguing that keeping them sealed was going to breed a culture of secrecy.

The other challenge came from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which also argued they must be opened and that saying Ramaphosa did not directly benefit was a fallacy meant to fool the populace. The EFF challenge came after a court ruling that said Ramaphosa did not personally benefit from the fund.

The Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane also appealed against Ledwaba’s ruling which sealed the statements on the basis that they might have been illegally obtained.

All these legal challenges to the secrecy around the statements were challenged by Ramaphosa’s lawyers.^[1]

Amount Raised

Estimates from media reports suggested that within months, the fund raised R1 billion and the money was used for several purposes.^[1]

Use of Funds

The funds were primarily used for the hiring of vehicles, conference venues, hotels and flights for lobbyists who were campaigning throughout South Africa to garner support for Ramaphosa.

The funds were also allegedly used to fund the several legal battles mainly in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) and the North West where CR17 supporters eventually convinced courts to disband regional and provincial structures that were pro-Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, thus handing her a big electoral blow.

Although one of the KZN legal firms involved in the provincial legal battles previously denied to Independent Media that it got paid from the CR17 funds, a name with a striking resemblance to it was underlined in copies of the bank statements which were widely circulated before they were sealed.

The statements also revealed that several ANC provincial bigwigs were paid unexplained sums ranging from R20 000 to R100 000.^[1]

Leak

Statements, widely shared on social media since in August 2019, show transactions relating to the FNB account of Linkd Environment Services, a Johannesburg company owned by one of the CR17 campaign members, Dr Crispian Olver.

The authenticity of the statements was not disputed.

Linkd disbursed funds to provincial coordinators and service providers used by the CR17 campaign, according to Ramaphosa's response to an interim report by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

Linkd's statements were part of a file named "Bosasa 9", the same file name on evidence the Office of the Public Protector filed with the High Court in Pretoria in August 2019.^[3]