Newly elected ANC Johannesburg regional chairperson Dada Morero has condemned former national commissioner of correctional services Arthur Fraser for the criminal charges he has laid against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Speaking to the SABC on Sunday at the ANC Joburg’s 15th regional elective conference at the Idle Winds Conference Centre in Centurion after being elected on Saturday night, Morero said Fraser acted wrongly.

“As the chair of Johannesburg, I am not sure if my response would be appropriate. But Arthur Fraser would have been the head of the intelligence services in this country before he was redeployed to correctional services. My view is that he acted incorrectly,” said Morero. 

“Once you are responsible for intelligence matters, you have a responsibility, even if you have personal differences with the head of state, to keep certain matters away from the public eye. That is his responsibility. Whether he has personal differences, he should remember that the country has entrusted him with its secrets. He cannot even think of acting the way he has acted. Whether he is wrong or right is something else. He is not supposed to have spoken about those matters the way he did. 

“But the presidency has responded to this matter officially and they have then in their response said there was no wrongdoing on the part of the president, and in fact the president reported the matter to the head of the police and the minister,” Morero said.

On Wednesday, Fraser announced that he had laid criminal charges against Ramaphosa at the Rosebank police station.

“The charges emanate from the theft of millions of US dollars (in excess of $4m) concealed within the premises of the president's Phala Phala farm in Waterberg, Limpopo, by criminals who were colluding with his domestic worker,” said Fraser in a statement.

Fraser said the details of the charges and the supporting evidence, including photographs, bank accounts, video footage and names, are contained in his statement filed with the Rosebank police station. Fraser said the charges he filed include defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping of suspects, their interrogation on his property and bribery.

In a media statement released on Thursday, the president’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Fraser’s claims were baseless and that Ramaphosa is ready to cooperate with law enforcement agencies regarding any investigation into the matter.