Shivambu ‘had to clear air on VBS’
Malema insisted his deputy must take part in debate over bank saga
EFF leader Julius Malema made sure his deputy Floyd Shivambu spoke in a parliamentary debate on the VBS mutual bank heist saga last week.
Shivambu had not wanted to do so, saying it would not be “strategic”.
Malema revealed this on Saturday at the funeral of Nosebenzile Doris Mpofu, mother to the party’s national chair Dali Mpofu.
The 86-year-old granny was buried in Qhugqwala village in King William’s Town. She died on October 18.
Addressing hundreds of mourners Malema said he had told Shivambu to clear the air.
“They said our deputy president got R10m from VBS and we said he did not get the money. Then they said there was a debate in parliament about VBS. I said to the deputy president, I was in Rwanda, ‘you are going to speak there’.
“[He said] ‘No president do you think it’s strategic?’ I said: ’They want you to keep quiet, they want to sweep you into a silent corner and make you feel ashamed of yourself because they know that what they say about you is not true.
“It’s not like they don’t know. They know it’s not true but they want to silence you. Unless you took R10m – then you will be sad to stand before people. But if you have not taken it you are not hearing the nonsense they are saying because you have got an appointment with the future. “If you focus on the appointment with the future, no amount of distraction should distract you. If you fail, if you feel weak, look at Ma Mpofu here when her child was in and out of prison and so many things were said about her’,” Malema said to applause.
A series of reports implicated Shivambu after advocate Terry Motau SC, author of the VBS Mutual Bank forensic report, released it earlier this month.
Shivambu’s brother Brian Shivambu was found to have received R16.1m from the looted VBS Mutual Bank. Of that amount, R10m allegedly went to the EFF heavyweight.
During the debate in parliament on Tuesday Shivambu was reported as saying the DA and a faction in the ANC were barking up the wrong tree.
“We will not entertain the barking. The EFF and ourselves as MPs never benefited anything from the VBS looting and the so-called heist that happened there but we want to give you a clearer context of what happened there.
“There was total wrongdoing by the executives of VBS Mutual Bank. We as the EFF without any fear of contradiction want to call on all the law enforcement agencies to take decisive action against all the people that did wrong in VBS mutual bank but we want to give you context.
“From 2014 the National Treasury, SA Reserve Bank and co-operative governance department were aware that municipalities were putting money in a mutual bank against the law but because of opportunism Treasury did nothing about it. Even when the question was asked, Treasury just gave the list of municipalities that were exposed – and not only to VBS but also the Grahamstown Building Society, which is a mutual bank that has municipal deposits even today.
“The Reserve Bank has been aware throughout that exposure to municipalities is dangerous and the only caution the Reserve Bank gave to VBS was ‘your depositors are concentrated with municipalities, please balance it’ – not all together discontinue it.”
Malema said they attended the funeral to thank Dali’s mother “for having allowed him to participate in the revolution”.