Phala Phala couch cash was 'security deposit', says Reserve Bank governor amid grilling by MPs

SA Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has defended the bank's investigation into Phala Phala, telling MPs its probe found that the $580 000 in cash handed to a lodge manager in 2020 was a "security deposit" and not a final payment. 

"Mr Hazim (Mustafa) left money at Phala Phala as a security deposit to secure the buffalo," Kganyago told Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance a week after the central bank released a brief overview of its report. 

The bank had probed whether exchange control rules were broken after $580 000 in cash was stolen from under a cushion on a couch in President Cyril Ramaphosa's private residence at the game farm three years ago. It found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president or Ntaba Nyoni Estates, the operating name for Phala Phala.