The $580 000 found stashed in a couch at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm could have been money meant for the ANC rather than the president, according to African Transformation Movement (ATM) parliamentary leader Vuyo Zungula.

“One cannot discount the fact that perhaps the money that was in Phala Phala was supposed to go towards the ANC and its campaigns,” said Zungula during a podcast interview with the Mail & Guardian this week.

“We know political parties, especially a political party like the ANC - which is the oldest liberation movement - will have relationships with other governments or other political parties, not only on the continent but elsewhere in the world.”

He claimed that because legislation does not allow political parties to receive funding from organisations outside of South Africa, the only way such organisations or international actors could fund the ANC would be through illicit means.

He went further, claiming: “The manner in which they are defending it, could be that the ANC, in its operations, is laundering money for the organisation using the president as a conduit.

“Because when a president travels outside the country, when they come back, they don’t get searched, so they can easily return with a bag full of dollars. There is no process to determine what they are bringing back or what it is for, unlike me and you when we travel outside the country.”

Zungula’s comments come after Ramaphosa secured an interim interdict halting parliament’s Section 89 impeachment committee from holding public hearings while he challenges the legality of the independent panel’s report into the Phala Phala matter.

The review application is set to be heard from 2 to 4 September.

The impeachment hearings will resume thereafter and consider the implications of the reviewed Phala Phala report. Ramaphosa argued that allowing parliament’s impeachment inquiry to proceed before the court had ruled on the validity of the report would cause him irreparable harm.

The ATM has filed a direct access application to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Western Cape high court ruling. Parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party have also joined the ATM in the application.

Zungula said some ANC members in parliament had urged the ATM to continue pursuing accountability in the Phala Phala matter. He added that people across different sectors of society and political parties believed there could not be one set of laws for some while, in Ramaphosa’s case, holding him accountable appeared to be treated as a crime.

“If you look at how he is being held accountable on the issues of Phala Phala, even some analysts and people in civil society are portraying the ATM as if there is some form of obsession.

“It’s as if we’re not doing our job. We are members of parliament; it is our duty and obligation. We took an oath to do what we are doing now. If we don’t do it, then it means we’re failing the people.”

Ramaphosa has consistently maintained that he broke no law in the Phala Phala saga and is willing to subject himself to any investigation relating to it.

Zungula said that if the president had always maintained that he acted lawfully, in good faith and in accordance with the law, he should not be fighting a process that could clear his name.

He claimed that this suggested there was more to the Phala Phala ordeal than was publicly known.

Zungula said the Western Cape high court ruling would allow public office-bearers to evade accountability because they could simply challenge allegations against them, knowing they could delay accountability through the courts.

“Can you imagine a mayor doing the same thing, a premier doing the same thing, an MEC or a minister doing the same thing?

“There have even been ANC members coming to us saying, ‘Please push for this,’ because if you don’t push for accountability on this issue, it’s going to send the country into a downward spiral. It would mean every public office-bearer can use the law and legal loopholes to avoid being held accountable.”

Meanwhile, Zungula has also thrown his hat into the ring for the Johannesburg mayoralty.

The M&G recently reported that the ATM’s regional leadership in Johannesburg had nominated him as its preferred mayoral candidate to challenge the likes of Herman Mashaba and Helen Zille.

Speaking during the podcast interview, Zungula confirmed that discussions about his candidacy had taken place within the ATM but said the party’s national leadership would decide who would contest the position. He added that he was interested in becoming mayor.

Zungula said he had agreed to make himself available as the party’s mayoral candidate because public representatives should always be prepared to serve where they are needed.

In a media briefing this week, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula said the ANC asked the nation to be patient, saying the process was what mattered.

A fair, unrushed process would give the country a result it could stand behind, he said.

Mbalula said the Western Cape high court granted an interim order that pauses the public hearings of the parliamentary committee and that this was “a pause, not a cancellation”.

He said the court did not decide who is right or wrong on the substance but it protected the process so that it is done correctly.

“We now know the president is advancing a credible case and it must be given its space and not be rushed. The ANC has held its own participation as a friend of the court in abeyance, on matters of process only, and firmly outside the election contest — while some parties, we note with regret, abuse this moment for headlines.”