President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that he knows alleged Tembisa Hospital corruption figure Hangwani Maumela, contradicting an earlier statement by his spokesperson who claimed the president had never met him.
Ramaphosa made the revelation during a question-and-answer session in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday, explaining that he met Maumela outside his home in Sandhurst in 2024.
The admission comes a day after presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told journalists that Ramaphosa had no personal or business relationship with Maumela.
In response to a question by ANC NCOP member Onica Dipuo Modupi, who asked him to clarify his relationship with Maumela and whether the allegation undermined his anti-corruption stance, Ramaphosa said, “Yes, this matter has occupied the headlines for quite a number of days now. My spokesperson, Mr. Vincent Magwenya, addressed the media yesterday in response to what they said was a video and a photograph.”
Magwenya had previously explained that the president married Maumela’s aunt decades ago but insisted the two men had never met. He claimed the video circulating online showed Ramaphosa walking with Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Jomo Sibiya, DJ Tbo Touch, and Bishop Noel Jones, not Maumela.
The video, recorded on September 29, 2023, became controversial after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) raided Maumela’s home last week, uncovering that three syndicates looted over R2 billion from Tembisa Hospital.
Ramaphosa told the NCOP that his earlier denial of knowing Maumela was true at the time. “Forty-seven years ago, I got married to his father’s sister — his aunt. We divorced 43 years ago. When I said in 2022 that I did not know him, it was because I had never encountered or seen him,” he said.
He recounted that during one of his morning walks in 2023, he was photographed near Maumela’s house but clarified that the people in the video were Tbo Touch and Bishop Noel Jones.
The president added that he eventually met Maumela in 2024 while walking past the same house. “He came out of the house and greeted me. I asked who he was, and he said, ‘I am Hangwani Maumela.’ I told him, ‘So you are the Maumela who is putting my name into disrepute,’ and then I walked away,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa also recalled greeting Maumela’s mother, Mboneni Maumela, whom he knew from his school days at Papirosi High School.
He emphasized that he has no dealings with Maumela and only encountered him by chance. “I do not deal with him. I do not visit his house. I have merely encountered him,” Ramaphosa said.
Expressing his disapproval of the corruption allegations, the president added: “I am appalled. As I walk past that house, I know it was allegedly built with money that should have been spent on the health of our people. The SIU has taken action, and I applaud them for reclaiming stolen money. We must support their efforts.”
