Phala Phala: Could the Real Scandal Be Counterfeit Dollars?
By Noko Maleka – Insight Jozi News When the Phala Phala scandal first broke, it was painted simply as a burglary gone wrong — millions of dollars allegedly stuffed in furniture, stolen, and then covered up. But as South Africans, have we asked ourselves whether the bigger crime may have been overlooked? The more one examines the details, the more troubling questions emerge. Take, for example, the so-called “buffalo buyer,” Hazim Mustafa, who told the world he arrived with large sums of US dollars to purchase game from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm. Even the most seasoned businesspeople will tell you: withdrawing such vast amounts of cash, in hard foreign currency, in one go, is nearly impossible under normal banking rules. Banks monitor large transactions, regulators flag suspicious withdrawals, and even billionaires move money electronically. So how then did one individual walk around with bags of dollars — unless those dollars were manufactured elsewhere? SARS itself confirmed in ...
