Two Convicted in the Phala Phala Theft as the Magistrate Calls the Investigation Poorly Done

Two men and a woman walked into the Modimolle Regional Court on Monday morning accused of stealing $580,000 from a couch in the president's house. By the afternoon, two of them had been convicted on charges arising from it, and the magistrate had used the word "poorly" about the investigation that caught them.

Two Convicted in the Phala Phala Theft as the Magistrate Calls the Investigation Poorly Done

Modimolle, South Africa — Regional Magistrate Peter Manthata delivered judgment in the Phala Phala farm theft case, convicting the alleged mastermind and the farm's former cleaner while freeing her brother on every charge.

The Verdict, in a Small Courtroom in Limpopo

Imanuwela David, whom the State described throughout the trial as the mastermind, was convicted of conspiracy to commit housebreaking with intent to steal, of housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, and of money laundering under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. Froliana Joseph, who worked as a temporary cleaner at Phala Phala at the time of the burglary, was convicted of conspiracy to commit housebreaking with intent to steal. South African outlets do not agree on whether she was convicted of theft and housebreaking as well: some record conspiracy only, others add the theft counts. The conspiracy conviction is the one every account carries.

Her brother, Ndilinasho Joseph, was acquitted on all charges. All three were also found not guilty of a separate break-in at Stokkiesdraai, the neighbouring farm, which the court heard was entered on 8 February 2020 with nothing taken.

The case returns to court on 13 November for sentencing proceedings. David remains in custody. Froliana Joseph's bail was extended and she was ordered to return on that date.

What the Court Actually Decided

No fingerprints were produced. No video of the culprits was produced. The State conceded in its closing argument in August that its case rested largely on circumstantial evidence, and on Monday the magistrate said so himself.

"It is clear that there is no direct evidence that implicates the three accused who had broken into ... the said house at Phala Phala," Manthata said.

What convicted David was the money that came out of him afterwards. "I therefore draw an inference that the dollars that accused one possessed and spent in purchasing the cars were stolen from Phala Phala farm," Manthata said. "I further draw an inference, which is the only inference to be drawn, that accused one was one of the culprits that broke and entered the house at Phala Phala farm and stole the dollars."

The defence argued that a circumstantial case without DNA or fingerprint evidence could not carry the burden. Manthata answered that the evidence had to be weighed in its entirety rather than in piece-meal fashion, and that the bank records, dealership testimony and phone traffic left him no other reading.

The chain was circumstantial, and it held.

Twenty Buffaloes, and a Couch Nobody Was Supposed to Know About

The cash was not a mystery to the farm. On 25 December 2019, twenty buffalo were sold for $580,000, and the lodge manager, Dumisani Sylvester Ndlovu, testified that the buyer paid him in cash. The money went into a safe first.

Ramaphosa, Ndlovu told the court, asked him to wait until he returned from leave before dealing with it. Before leaving for the December holidays, Ndlovu moved the cash into the president's house and hid it under a couch. He testified he told nobody where he had put it.

The farm's general manager testified that Ndlovu and a permanent employee, Monica Sheleko, had allowed temporary workers to clean Ramaphosa's house, contrary to the farm's rules. Froliana Joseph was one of those temporary workers.

The president's account has never varied from the cattle. The $580,000, he has said, was payment for Ankole cattle bought by a Sudanese businessman who had not yet taken delivery. South African outlets cannot even agree on the buyer's name: Hazim Mustafa in some, Mistafa Hassim in others, the same man under two renderings.

The Spending, Item by Item

The day after the burglary, David bought a Volkswagen Golf 7 at a Benoni car dealership and put three packs of United States dollars in a drawer. A salesman first testified the money came out of David's underpants, then said it came from his pocket.

"The only contradiction that emerged was as to whether the money was from the underpants or from the pockets," Manthata said, and found the salesman an honest and reliable witness.

The rest of the list is what the court spent much of Monday reading out: a Volkswagen Polo at R150,000, a BMW M5 at R450,000, two Mercedes-Benz G63 at R1.2 million each, a Porsche, a diamond-encrusted Rolex, a Rustenburg property at R850,000, R250,000 on decorative dental jewellery known as grillz, and $80,000 exchanged for rand through a currency dealer.

The Investigations of This Case Were Poorly Done

The magistrate did not soften it. The absence of fingerprints and footage was not, in his view, a gap in the evidence so much as a verdict on the police work.

"This is a clear indication that the investigations of this case were poorly done," Manthata said. "It is not surprising that this case was opened two years after the incident."

And then the line that will follow the case: "It is, in my view, not understandable as we are not talking about an ordinary house but the house of the country's first citizen, the president."

That finding sits beside a separate record. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate finalised its own Phala Phala probe in October 2023 and declassified it in April 2026. Briefing Parliament in May, IPID said the head of the Presidential Protection Service, Major-General Wally Rhoode, failed to report the crime to the then-national commissioner and failed to ensure dockets were registered. IPID and the Public Protector both recommended disciplinary action. Rhoode and a constable were cleared in internal police proceedings.

The Brother Who Walked Out

Ndilinasho Joseph's acquittal was not a technicality; it was a set of gaps the court counted out one by one. He never worked at Phala Phala. Nothing was found in his possession. His bank accounts showed nothing to suggest he had benefited.

"Again, there is no evidence adduced for the court to draw an inference against him that he conspired with accused two, his sister, about committing the said crime," Manthata said. "The same applies to the communication that he had with accused one."

The magistrate was explicit about the structural problem in the State's case: the only route to convicting the siblings of housebreaking would have been a finding that they acted with a common purpose with David, and that was never alleged in the charge sheet.

For Froliana, the court found the opposite. Her duties gave her access to the house, and, as Manthata put it, she "was the only one who had substantial cellphone communications with accused one".

The Number That Keeps Changing

Six years on, South Africa still does not have one agreed figure for what was taken. The same $580,000 is rendered as roughly R9.2 million, R9.6 million and R10 million across South African outlets, depending on which exchange rate each one reached for.

The State's financial evidence put more than R9.5 million through David's accounts between February 2020 and May 2022. The opposition party ActionSA says the president declared a loss of R8.7 million, and that evidence in the trial pointed to transactions above R15 million — an allegation, not a finding of any court.

The original criminal complaint, laid in June 2022 by former spy chief Arthur Fraser, alleged that $4 million had been concealed. That figure has never been tested in a courtroom.

None of these numbers can be reconciled from the public record, and Monday's judgment did not attempt it. The court worked from the $580,000 the State could trace and from what the money bought once it left the farm.

Why This Lands in the Middle of an Impeachment

The convictions are a criminal matter in Limpopo. They also land inside a constitutional one. The Section 89 independent panel that reported in November 2022 found prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have violated section 96(2)(a) of the Constitution and section 34(1) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, by keeping the investigation into the burglary private.

The panel's charges, as canvassed in court this year, include paid work carried out through the farm, a conflict of interest, abuse of office over an off-the-books investigation run by his protection detail including travel to Namibia, and a failure to report the theft.

Nothing in Monday's judgment touches those charges. What it does establish is narrower and harder to argue with: the court accepted the farm manager's account of where the cash came from and where it was hidden, and found on the criminal standard that David was one of the people who took it.

Where the Impeachment Stands Tonight

On 8 May 2026 the Constitutional Court declared a National Assembly rule invalid, set aside the December 2022 resolution that had shielded the president, and sent the panel's report to an impeachment committee. That committee — 31 MPs from 16 parties, chaired by Makashule Gana — began work in June.

On 24 July the Western Cape High Court granted Ramaphosa an interim interdict, two judges to one, barring public hearings until his review of the panel report is decided. No public hearings have been held since. His review was argued over three days in early September before a full bench; judgment was reserved.

A second fight is running alongside it. The committee rescinded its recommendation of Advocate Thandazani Madonsela SC as evidence leader on 1 September, by 18 votes to nine, after the president objected. The EFF and the African Legal Professionals Association challenged that decision in the High Court in mid-October. Judgment there is also reserved.

What Comes Next

Sentencing on 13 November. The National Prosecuting Authority in Limpopo welcomed the convictions, and the State's case, whatever the magistrate thought of the investigation, produced two of them.

The president's position has not moved. He has confirmed a burglary took place and has maintained that the $580,000 was payment for Ankole cattle sold to a Sudanese businessman who had not yet collected the livestock. He denies wrongdoing. Investigations by the Public Protector, the Reserve Bank and the revenue service cleared him, and the NPA has not charged him — a decision ActionSA has publicly attacked.

So the country now holds two facts at once. A court has convicted a man and a woman in connection with the theft of that money. And no court has yet tested the allegation at the centre of the impeachment: what the president did once he knew it was gone.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: Mail & Guardian, News24, IOL, The Citizen, eNCA, SABC News, The South African, Inside Politics, Briefly News, Daily Maverick, Parliament of South Africa, SAFLII judgments [2026] ZAWCHC 371 and [2026] ZAWCHC 454, and ActionSA statements. Photographs: Gallo Images/Deaan Vivier via The Citizen; SABC News; Gallo Images/Phill Magakoe via The Citizen. Cover: Global 1 News editorial image.