Time for introspection
EFF advised to investigate Floyd
Former public protector Thuli Madonsela has urged the EFF to conduct its own internal forensic investigation into the VBS Bank scandal – and to probe if its deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, was aware of his brother’s alleged involvement.
A report commissioned by the Reserve Bank has found that Brian Shivambu received R16m in “gratuitous payments” from VBS – as part of a nearly R2bn “looting” of the bank, which serviced the poor.
Shivambu has denied any wrongdoing. He maintains his company, Sgameka Projects, was appointed in 2017 to “provide professional consulting services to Vele Investments in their mining and insurance businesses” and was paid for these services through a VBS Bank account.
Vele Investments is the majority shareholder of VBS Mutual Bank.
Madonsela says the amount paid to Shivambu’s company was “huge” and should potentially have raised “red flags” with his brother.
“Sometimes people are caught between maintaining the appearance of being good and actually being good, and sometimes being good means disclosing that you’re not faultless,” Madonsela told Sowetan.
“And in this case, I think the EFF would have to have its own internal forensic investigation, to look at the extent to which Shivambu knew, or should have known, that his brother’s company could not have been competent enough to have amassed that amount...”
The EFF insists that anyone guilty of wrongdoing in the VBS scandal must face the might of the law, and have their assets seized to ensure the recovery of stolen money.
But Madonsela says the party cannot – like the ANC under former President Jacob Zuma – ignore its own obligations to properly investigate alleged ethical breaches by its leadership.
“They’re finding themselves in the same spot as the ANC and it seems they’re resorting to the same tactics as the ANC...
“I think they [the EFF] will have to decide whether they want to continue to present themselves as a paragon of ethics… and they’re then the same as the ANC, saying: forget about ethics, all we care about is the criminal justice system and we know it takes forever, therefore our people can remain on board.”
Shivambu denied receiving R10m from VBS at the weekend, referring to attempts to link the EFF to the bank as “disingenuous and patently weak”. The EFF will hold a media briefing tomorrow.
Madonsela said EFF leader Julius Malema had played a significant part in her state capture investigation.
She said he had both provided her with the names of ministers allegedly implicated in such state capture, and brought her a potentially crucial witness: a Gupta family employee “who had taken down the number plates of the cars that had come in” to the Saxonwold compound.
ANC Limpopo treasurer Danny Msiza, implicated in the VBS scandal, demanded an “unreserved and unconditional” apology by the end of business today from advocate Terry Motau, who helped write the report.
A letter from Msiza’s lawyers has challenged Motau to afford Msiza the opportunity to present his case.
“It is not unreasonable for our client to hold the view that is was reasonably foreseeable on your part as an advocate that the release of the report without him being afforded an opportunity to put his version to refute those allegations would cause untold damage to his dignity.”