The highly anticipated trial of three accused in the Phala Phala farm robbery has entered a dramatic phase after a state witness revealed how $580,000 in cash was removed from a farm safe and hidden in a sofa at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s private residence.
Testifying in the Modimolle Regional Court on Monday, the witness — a former lodge manager at Phala Phala whose identity cannot be revealed for safety reasons — admitted to personally stashing the dollars in a rarely used room of the President’s house, raising fresh questions about the circumstances surrounding the controversial heist.
The witness explained that they initially placed the cash in the safe where the farm normally kept important documents. However, they soon became uneasy after hearing that smaller amounts of money had previously gone missing from that very room.
“At some point I was told that smaller amounts of money had been stolen from the safe. That made me more anxious because many employees had access to that room. I didn’t want to be blamed if more money disappeared,” the witness said.
“I was afraid to leave that money inside the safe because everyone had access to the room where it was kept. The safe also contained documents of the animals, keys for the farm’s rooms, and other valuables. I then decided to take the money to the house of the President, thinking it was safe because it has cameras and is heavily secured.”
According to the testimony, the money was taken to a spare room used occasionally by Ramaphosa’s child. Inside the room, the witness unpacked the cash from travel bags, spread the bundles beneath the cushions of a couch, and concealed them with the cushions.
The three accused — Immanuwela David, a Namibian national, and siblings Floriana and Ndilinasho Joseph — are charged with housebreaking, theft, and money laundering. Prosecutors allege the trio conspired to break into the President’s Bela-Bela farm in February 2020 and stole approximately $580,000, equivalent to nearly R10 million at the time.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
The state is expected to call more than 20 witnesses in the coming weeks to prove its case that the suspects gained inside knowledge of the hidden cash, coordinated the robbery, and moved the stolen money across borders.
The Phala Phala affair erupted into national scandal in June 2022 after revelations by former spy boss Arthur Fraser that large sums of undeclared foreign currency had been stolen from the President’s game farm and allegedly covered up by his security detail.
Ramaphosa later confirmed that the money originated from the sale of buffalo to Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa in late 2019. Mustafa told the media he had paid $580,000 in cash for the animals. However, questions remain about whether the transaction was properly declared to the South African Reserve Bank and tax authorities.
News24 recently reported that Ramaphosa was informed that the cash had been removed from the safe and hidden in a couch months before the robbery. Monday’s testimony by the witness appears to corroborate that account, though it also added a new layer of intrigue: that smaller sums had already gone missing prior to the heist.
The scandal has dogged Ramaphosa’s presidency, with opposition parties repeatedly accusing him of violating financial regulations and failing to report the theft to the police in accordance with the law.
Addressing ANC councillors at Nasrec on Monday, Ramaphosa reiterated his stance against corruption, saying:
“We must not protect individuals implicated in corrupt activity. We must encourage and enable law enforcement agencies to act against people within our ranks who break the law.”
However, his comments have done little to quiet speculation about why such large amounts of foreign currency were stored in unconventional ways at his farm.
South Africans flooded X (formerly Twitter) with divided opinions following the latest revelations.
User Lindani Sikiti wrote: “At least we now know that the money was not stashed by Ramaphosa in those sofas. The narrative that it was deliberately hidden from authorities was false and malicious. Ramaphosa must now come clean about where those dollars came from, period.”
Another user, Mafa, was critical of the President’s staffing choices: “So Cyril has foreigners working at his residence? Haai, isn’t that some sort of security breach? Why would a President of a country hire foreigners?”
Monday’s hearing was marked by tense exchanges as defence lawyers pressed the witness on why the money was not left in the safe. The witness insisted the decision to move the money to the President’s house was driven by fear of theft from staff with access to the safe room.
The prosecution argued that this testimony shows the accused had insider knowledge of where the money was hidden, enabling them to carry out the heist. The defence countered that there is no direct evidence linking the accused to the planning of the theft.
The trial has raised more questions than answers. How the suspects learned about the cash hidden under a sofa, whether the buffalo sale was properly declared, and why the President’s farm employees were handling such sums of foreign currency remain at the heart of the controversy.
For now, the three accused will remain in custody as the trial continues. Proceedings are expected to resume on Wednesday 17 September 2025, there will be another break then it will resume on the 30th September then the trial will continue throughout, with further testimony likely to shed more light on one of the most politically explosive cases in South Africa’s recent history.
