Ramaphosa admits he knows alleged Tembisa Hospital corruption figure Hangwani Maumela

President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that he knows alleged Tembisa Hospital corruption kingpin Hangwani Maumela, after meeting him outside his Sandhurst home in 2024.

Ramaphosa made the disclosure during a question-and-answer session in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday.

This was in contrast to what his spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told journalists at a media briefing at the Union Buildings on Monday.

In response to a question by ANC NCOP member Onica Dipuo Modupi, who asked him to clarify his relationship with Maumela, and whether the allegation linking him to the individual sought to undermine his commitment to combating corruption regardless of who is involved, Ramaphosa said,

“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.”

Magwenya told the media on Monday at the Union Buildings that Ramaphosa had admitted that decades ago, he married the aunt of Maumela, who is accused of involvement in the Tembisa Hospital looting scandal, but insisted that Ramaphosa had never met Maumela and had no personal or business relationship with him.

According to Magwenya, the video shows Ramaphosa walking alongside Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Jomo Sibiya, who was at the time a special adviser to the President, DJ Tbo Touch, and Bishop Noel Jones. 

The video was recorded on September 29, 2023.

Last week, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) raided Maumela’s home as part of an operation to seize assets allegedly linked to the looting of public funds at Tembisa Hospital. 

The broader investigation uncovered that three syndicates had looted more than R2 billion in total.

Ramaphosa said Magwenya had been focused on the photograph, and he sought to clarify the relationship.

“Forty-seven years ago, I got married to his father’s sister - his aunt. We divorced 43 years ago. And when I said to Honorable 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. I was walking past it on my way home.”

“As Mr. Magwenya said yesterday, I was walking with one of my colleagues, who was my then adviser, who is now a deputy minister, in the morning. I often say, when people ask to meet me, ‘Come at 6 o’clock. Walk with me.’ You get me for an hour and a half as we do our 10-kilometre walk or so.”

“So, I was walking with Mr. Sibiya, and as we were walking past a house, which I had seen under construction for some time, I kept asking, ‘Whose house is this?’ It is a massive house.”

“Walking there, a car comes past. I always mispronounce the person’s name - Tbo Touch, or something like that. He steps out of the car with another gentleman. He wants to talk to me, photograph me, etc. So we stop, and we stand against the wall of this large house - and that is where the photograph and video were taken. The allegation is that the person in the photograph is Maumela.”

“It was not Maumela. It was Mr. Tbo Touch and Mr. Jones from the United States, I later learned.”

“There was a brouhaha that I visited his home regularly. I walk past that house when I go on my walks.”

“Now, in 2024, that should be known because Magwenya focused on the photograph - I confirm that in 2024, while walking on that same street, a person came out of the house and greeted me. It was Maumela.”

“I often meet people and ask who they are. He said, ‘I am Hangwani Maumela.’ I said, ‘So you are the Maumela who is putting my name into disrepute.’ He smiled. I walked away from home.”

“On December 26, 2024, I was walking with my daughter, who also enjoys walking, on the same street. This young man came out and said, ‘Hello, Bo-Ramaphosa, my mother is here - can you say hello to her?’ I asked, ‘Who is she?’ He said, ‘It’s Mboneni Maumela.’”

“When I was at school in Papirosi High School with my then wife, Pope Mudao, her brother was there. Later, I discovered that Mboneni and her brother had a relationship, and they had a child - this is Hangwani Maumela, though I did not know him. I know his mother because we attended school together.”

“He asked me to greet her. She came out of the yard wearing a morning gown. I said I could not allow her to stand in the street in a morning gown, so I moved toward the gate, greeted her, asked how she was doing, then walked away.”

“That is the sum total of it all. I do not deal with him. I do not visit his house. I have merely encountered him.”

Ramaphosa said he was appalled at allegations made against Maumela.

“I am appalled. As I walk past that house, I know the house was allegedly built with money not properly acquired - money that should have been spent on the health of our people.”

“The SIU has taken action, and I applaud them. That is why I say we are making progress. The Special Investigating Unit is reclaiming stolen money - we must support and applaud their efforts.”

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za

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