Hlophe to Ramaphosa: ‘A President broken beyond repair, your couch swallowed millions, you claim to fight corruption?’

MK Party deputy president and MP John Hlophe launched a scathing attack on President Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament on Wednesday, calling him a “president broken beyond repair” and accusing him of hypocrisy over the Phala Phala scandal.

Hlophe slammed Ramaphosa while speaking at the Presidency’s budget vote for 2025/2026 financial year, in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

Hlophe criticised Ramaphosa's anti-corruption stance, mentioning the theft of undeclared foreign currency from a couch on the president’s Phala Phala farm. 

“You hide dollars like a hustler stashing stolen goods under a mattress,” Hlophe said, speaking directly to Ramaphosa across the chamber.

During his speech, Ramaphosa presented the budget vote with a focus on the 7th administration’s three strategic priorities, including promoting inclusive growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and building a capable, ethical, and developmental state. 

However, the MK Party rejected the budget outright.

“Today, we stand here not to decorate this chamber with empty words, but to deliver a clear message of defiance and truth,” said Hlophe. 

“We stand in absolute rejection of the vote on the Presidency and the National Assembly budget. This is because we refuse to fund lies, hypocrisy, and a failed dream.”

He painted a bleak picture of daily life in South Africa, saying citizens were living in a country where “the price of bread decides whether a child eats or goes to bed hungry,” and where “hope is more expensive than petrol.”

Hlophe said the Presidency had become “a fortress of a conflicted and compromised president,” and accused Ramaphosa of being “the living, breathing embodiment of corruption.”

A point of order was raised by ANC MP Gijimam Skosana, citing Rule 84, which governs parliamentary decorum and language. 

Skosana objected to Hlophe’s characterisation of Ramaphosa as “broken beyond repair.” 

However, Deputy Speaker Annelie Lotriet ruled that the remark was a matter of debate, not a breach of parliamentary rules.

Further points of order followed, with ANC MPs objecting to Hlophe’s accusations that the president hid stolen currency. 

Lotriet again defended parliamentary freedom of speech and criticised the misuse of procedural objections.

Hlophe also referenced allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who recently accused senior SAPS officials of working with criminal syndicates and attempting to dismantle the task team investigating political killings in the province.

“The SAPS is no longer a shield for the innocent. It has become a rented army protecting drug lords and criminal enterprises,” said Hlophe.

He criticised Ramaphosa’s response to allegations against senior officials, including placing the Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu on special leave, suggesting this was inadequate.

“You speak of fighting corruption, yet you place your own Minister of Police on special leave instead of removing him from Cabinet, as you did with the DA deputy minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (Andrew Whitfield),” Hlophe said.

He also accused Ramaphosa of protecting political allies while ignoring accountability. 

“This inconsistency reeks of selective morality. It shows that protecting your faction is more important to you than protecting the people of this country,” he said.

In explosive allegations, Mkhwanazi accused Deputy Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya - who is also been placed on special leave - of colluding with information dealer Brown Mogotsi and Mchunu to dismantle the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team.

He claimed Mchunu disbanded the unit in March, halting 121 active dockets tied to political murders. Mkhwanazi presented WhatsApp messages, SAPS documents, and cellphone records as evidence.

Mchunu, in a December 2024 letter to Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola, said the unit had “outlived its usefulness.” 

In response to the scandal, President Ramaphosa placed Mchunu on special leave and established a Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

On Tuesday, Ramaphosa appointed Gwede Mantashe as acting Minister of Police, while he retains his role in mineral and petroleum resources. 

Professor Firoz Cachalia will take over police leadership in August after retiring from Wits University.

IOL