He has defended the party’s decision not to discuss Phala Phala at its 55th conference in December and again last week when the conference concluded in Bloemfontein.

Speaking to eNCA on Monday, following his delivery of the January 8 statement on Sunday in Bloemfontein, Ramaphosa said the delegates were not preoccupied with discussing Phala Phala because they knew the matter was being handled "properly" by state institutions and the ANC’s integrity commission.

He said because the matter was being addressed, delegates felt it would be dealt with at the right time and through the right processes.

This is even though the matter dominated internal party discussions following the release of the Section 189 report and going into the conference.

Ramaphosa rejected any suggestions that the matter was not discussed because delegates feared they would be dealt with if they brought it up.

"There is confidence in the processes that are under way to handle this matter, so you cannot attribute it to fear or any form of avoidance," he said.

Ramaphosa has taken the panel's report, which was led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, on legal review directly to the Constitutional Court, but this didn't stop Parliament from dealing with it.

"Once you have processes, structures, and systems for dealing with a matter, you should leave everything to those processes, structures, and systems because anything else outside of that is very, very speculative, very tentative," Ramaphosa added.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told a media briefing that the report would not be discussed at the conference and would be dealt with by the national executive committee (NEC).

"There will be no Phala Phala issue on the discussion agenda at the ANC conference; there will be two issues on the table to finalise: reports from the commissions and constitutional amendments."

'I've moved on' 

The ANC president also said that he was not "upset" with ANC MPs who defied the party’s instruction to vote against the adoption of the Phala Phala report in Parliament.

Five MPs, including a minister in Ramaphosa’s cabinet, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, voted with the opposition in Parliament to adopt the report.

Later, Dlamini-Zuma said she had done so to give Ramaphosa space to respond to the allegations.

However, the motion failed, and Ramaphosa survived an impeachment vote.

On the ANC MPs who voted with the opposition, Ramaphosa said: "I am not upset, I am never upset by things like that. These political processes, you take them in tandem and you move on."

Ramaphosa told the SABC that he has been clear that he will subject himself to whatever processes he has to face regarding Phala Phala.

News24