The South African Council of Churches (SACC) says it has found the media release of the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) on its investigation into the Phala Phala matter “confusing and inspiring more questions than answers, as several points remained unclear at its conclusion.”

In the Monday, August 21 statement, the SACC calls on the SARB “to offer more insight into its investigation findings by sharing its report, in order to demonstrate that every citizen of the country is held to the same banking laws and regulations – regardless of the citizen’s standing in society.”

“If the report cannot be immediately made public, we should look forward to when it will be presented to Parliament, where the SARB normally reports,” reads the report signed by the SACC General Secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana.

In the August 21 statement, the ecumenical association which includes members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) further calls on the SARB to shed more clarity “on such a critically important matter,” as the SACC believes “it is in the best interests of both the South African public and the President himself.”

In a November 2022 statement, the SACBC in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s  implementation plan on the state capture commission, called on parliament to ensure that it would “not continue to protect politically connected people when they are implicated in corruption allegations, including the recent claims of transgression against the law by the sitting president from his Phala Phala farm.”