- President Cyril Ramaphosa clarified his limited acquaintance with Hangwani Maumela, linked to Tembisa Hospital corruption, stating he encountered him in 2024 during walks in his neighbourhood.
- Ramaphosa, married to Maumela’s aunt 47 years ago but divorced decades back, denied familial ties or dealings with Maumela, commending the SIU’s corruption crackdown.
- Responding to media controversies, Ramaphosa confirmed seeing Maumela’s luxurious home during walks and expressed dismay over the misused public funds alleged in the SIU probe.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says he “encountered” Tembisa Hospital corruption kingpin Hangwani Maumela after meeting him outside his home in Sandhurst in 2024.
MKP MP, Mmabatho Mokoena, asked Ramaphosa about Maumela and for him to clarify his relationship with the man who is at the centre of looting and corruption at Tembisa hospital.
He was responding to oral questions at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday.
Mokoena said while the party recognises and applauds the measures he has taken against corruption, and the SIU proclamations to investigate corruptions in institutions such as Tembisa Hospital, the president needs to explain his relationship with Maumela.
“There is this one individual who’s reported to be involved in corruption at Tembisa Hospital and he’s said to be your nephew. Honourable President, can you please clarify your relationship with him? If any, and how does this allegation, which seeks to link you to this particular individual attempt to undermine your commitment to fight rigorous and to fight rigorously against corruption irrespective of who does it and whoever it happens?” asked Mokoena.
Ramaphosa responded that he was married to Maumela’s aunt some 47 years ago, however, is not “related to him as such”.
This was a deviation from what his spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told journalists at a press briefing at the Union Buildings on Monday.
At that press conference, Magwenya stated that Ramaphosa did not frequent Maumela’s house nor had he met him outside his home in 2023 as suggested by social media commentators. Magwenya went further to state that Maumela was not a member of his immediate family, and he often walks on the street where Maumela’s mansion is located in Sandhurst.
Ramaphosa’s connection to Maumela has dominated headlines since the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) pounced on his property last week, seizing luxury vehicles and art among other assets.
But Ramaphosa has deviated from the script and conceded that he had encountered Maumela only a year after a video clip was taken of him greeting radio jock Tbo Touch and his friend and mentor Bishop Noel Jones.
“Yes, this matter has occupied the headlines for quite a number of days now. My spokesperson, Mr Vincent Magwenya, addressed the media yesterday, in response to what they said was a video and a photograph and he focused on that and he explained what is my relationship at all with this person,” Ramaphosa said.
READ | Ramaphosa dismisses claims of weekly visits to Maumela’s mansion
Ramaphosa was at pains to explain that he had married Maumela’s aunt 47 years ago and divorced 43 years ago.
“Now 47 years ago I got married to his father’s sister, his aunt, we divorced 43 years ago and when I said to Honourable [John] Steenhuisen in 2022 when he asked whether I knew him, I said I did not know him because I had never encountered him, I had never seen him and that was gospel truth, now later in 2023 as I was walking in the street in my neighbourhood I walked past a house as Mr Magwenya said yesterday,” said Ramaphosa.
Steenhuisen had asked Ramaphosa about Maumela during a answer and question session in 2022 at the National Assembly.
READ | SILENCED: The Tembisa tender ‘don’ and his ties to Ramaphosa’s family, key advisor
Ramaphosa explained that his convoy drives past that house, and that the picture and video of him, making rounds on social media, was taken in 2023 on one of his walks where he usually invites people who want to engage him to make the 10km walks with him at 6am.
He said during his walks he saw Maumela’s house under construction, and would often ask whose “massive house” it was but never got the information.
Ramaphosa said:
So there was this brouhaha that, yes, I visit his home on a regular basis and so forth… in 2024, I am walking on that same street and a person comes out of this house and he greets me and as I often meet people, I ask them, who are you? He says, I am Hangwani Maumela and that’s how he introduces himself to me and I say, so you are the man who is putting my name into disrepute and he smiles away, and now I’ve encountered this person, and I walk away and I walk to my home.
“And then in 2024, on the 26th of December, I am walking with my daughter, who loves walking too, on the same street, and there this young man comes out and he says, ‘Hello, Mr Ramaphosa, my mother is here.
“’Can you say hello to her?’ and I say, who is she? He says who she is,” added Ramaphosa.
He said he is going to write a book about his morning encounters with South Africans “because some of them are quite interesting and exciting”.
Ramaphosa added:
So this is how this Maumela fellow then gets into this whole drama because his aunt who is my former wife of 47 years ago, it’s his aunt and he is really not my relative as such. So I have encountered him, and you can make what you like of it, do I deal with him? No. Do I meet him and sit down with him? No. Do I visit him at his house? No. Am I appalled at the allegations that are being made against him? Yes, I am appalled and as I walk past that house, I know that that house was built with the money as it is alleged, that was not properly acquired, and it is money that should have been spent on the health of our people.
“So the SIU has taken action, and I applaud that and that is why I say we are making progress.
The special investigating unit is reclaiming stolen money, and we must support them and applaud them for the work that they are doing,” Ramaphosa said.
Last Thursday the SIU, South African Police Service, and Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department officers descended on Maumela’s house in a coordinated operation to seize assets as part of a broader forfeiture case linked to alleged looting at Tembisa Hospital.
The SIU seized, among others, Lamborghini motor vehicles and art from Maumela’s house following an interim order to preserve assets of approximately R900 million that were allegedly unlawfully and irregularly paid out by Tembisa Hospital.
