It emerged on Friday evening that Sunday Independent editor Steven Motale was in possession of numerous emails from Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s private email accounts possibly linking him to as many as eight different women.

If they are indeed authentic, the emails were either leaked from Ramaphosa’s server or were obtained through a hack. His office has said they were not obtained legally.

Ramaphosa’s office, through acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale, released a statement on Friday to say it was “aware” of social media messages, “which take the form of media enquiries from a Sunday newspaper, that make various claims about Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s personal life”.

Though Seale’s statement referred to the fact that the newspaper queries in question were being circulated on social media, it did not speak to whether it is in fact true that The Sunday Independent is working on a story.

The queries are real, however, and were sent by Motale.

In his statement, Seale appeared to verify that the emails were Ramaphosa’s “personal email correspondence” and they were not lawfully obtained.

“There is no doubt that these messages have been circulated as part of a deliberate campaign to smear the person of the deputy president. They are a transparent attempt to distort personal email correspondence that could only have been obtained through criminal means,” said Seale.

“The deputy president will in due course release a detailed statement on the allegations contained in the messages.”

The emails in question are not from an official government server but are instead from private Gmail accounts not obviously featuring Ramaphosa’s name.

Questions Motale posed to Ramaphosa would indicate the newspaper is asking the future presidential hopeful about alleged extramarital affairs with eight different women, one of them allegedly being a doctor who was also treating him medically.

Ramaphosa’s current wife, Tshepo Motsepe, is also a medical doctor.

The Sunday Independent also appears to have sent questions to some of the other women allegedly involved in the emails to ask them about their relationship with Ramaphosa.

The names of eight women were listed.

When The Citizen called Seale earlier on Friday, he made it clear that they were still investigating the allegations, but he seemed confident they would turn out to be without basis.

Here are some of the tweets about the matter:

Gupta emails vs Ramaphosa emails =Ama levels

???????????????????????????????????? — Mamkoena (@julietmokoena5) September 1, 2017

Investigate his business dealings, tarnish him as being anti-black, etc.

You can't be telling us that he has unprotected sex. Please! pic.twitter.com/CzyLv0mYqU — Thebe (@MOSTHEBE) September 1, 2017

LOL.

despite that, some tweeps claimed to have leaked Ramaphosa emails worse than #GuptaLeaks. Only to allege infidelities pic.twitter.com/aOUgoXargr — Thebe (@MOSTHEBE) September 1, 2017

They are coming for Ramaphosa https://t.co/QuLgYbxmlW — R350 Richer. (@BuddyTebza) September 1, 2017

What's about to go down with Ramaphosa is an example of the war in politics and how dirty it can really get! #RamaphosaLeaks — Isaac LK4 (@LK_four) September 1, 2017

As I patiently wait for the apparent Ramaphosa leaks. pic.twitter.com/2zntVRycAw — ManB (@MARUBINE) September 1, 2017

https://twitter.com/MsMomoSays/status/903705334396702720