VBS presents... How to steal a bank
A shameless R2bn SA production
EFF leader Floyd Shivambu’s brother Brian, former president Jacob Zuma and Public Investment Corporation (PIC) boss Dan Matjila have been implicated in a forensic report on the failure of VBS Mutual Bank‚ released yesterday.
The forensic report compiled by advocate Terry Motau and Werksmans Attorneys goes into detail about how the bank heist occurred and lists a number of former executives of VBS and its largest shareholder‚ Vele Investments‚ that were the perpetrators and beneficiaries of the crime.
One of the largest benefactors of the largesse distributed by VBS in its attempts to secure deposits‚ appears to have been Brian.
He received R16.1m from “gratuitous payments” flowing from VBS Mutual Bank. At the time of writing‚ the EFF and Floyd had not responded to requests for comment on Brian.
In March‚ the EFF lambasted the Treasury for putting VBS under curatorship and said the bank was being victimised because it had given Zuma a loan to pay for the no-security upgrades to his Nkandla home.
Also included in the 148- page document is testimony from VBS chief executive Andile Ramavhunga‚ who was asked whether a commission of R1.5m had been paid to a group of South African Transport and Allied Workers Union officials to solicit a R1bn deposit from Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).
Ramavhunga replies: “It could have been … I know for a fact that we were asked to put money into the Dudu Myeni Foundation.”
He further stated that the request for the donation surfaced at the same time they were soliciting the deposit from Prasa.
The investigators concluded Ramavhunga meant to refer to the Jacob G Zuma Foundation‚ of which Myeni is the chair. The report said when VBS needed to raise R2bn from the PIC, Phophi Mukhodobwane, the general manager of Treasury at VBS, testified that he was instructed by Tshifhiwa Matodzi, another official at VBS to collect R5m in cash from the bank’s Makhado branch.
The money was to be taken by helicopter to Lanseria International Airport in Joburg and be paid to a “Bra Dan”.
Mukhodobwane understood that “Bra Dan” referred Matjila.
The PIC yesterday rejected suggestions that Matjila received a R5m bribe. The PIC indicated that it had already taken steps against two of its delegated directors on the board of VBS, Ernest Nesane and Paul Magula.
Matjila said: “I emphatically reject any suggestion that I may have received R5m to facilitate any further funding to VBS. In fact, the portfolio management committee of PIC turned down an application to put more money into VBS two days before it was placed under curatorship.”
The EFF has recently backed dubious characters such as suspended SA Revenue Service boss Tom Moyane‚ controversial Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama as well as the leadership of VBS.
In the past week the party was vocal in calling for the sacking of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in relation to his state capture inquiry testimony.
Nene resigned on Tuesday. President Cyril Ramaphosa has since appointed former SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni as the new finance minister.
Last night, however, the EFF said it noted the report and reiterated its position that all who are responsible must be criminally prosecuted.
The party said it was concerned by the findings that the bank could no be saved.
But the party still did not say anything about the involvement of Brian in the collapse of the bank.