Matter of fact

In “Flying high: Lifestyles of the VBS ‘heist’ rich and infamous” (October 14), we incorrectly stated that Kabelo Matsepe, a former ANC Youth League leader in Limpopo, attended meetings hosted by Tshifhiwa Matodzi in Eagle Canyon to plan the VBS enrichment scheme. We also incorrectly linked him to a company alleged to have channelled R250,000 to the ANC by purchasing a table at a gala dinner.

Although Mr Matsepe had responded before we went to print, we failed to include a response from his lawyer, Mariq van der Westhuizen, saying that the allegations against her client were without basis: “Our client denies any unlawful conduct, and it is submitted that our client’s relationship with VBS was based on a valid, lawful consultancy contract. The inquiry has offended a plethora of constitutional principles, and we are in the process of preparing an application whereby the constitutionality of the inquiry will be objurgated. The application will be issued shortly.”

We apologise for the errors.

In another conversation, they discuss omitting certain VBS cash withdrawals from the report they were to submit to the Financial Intelligence Centre.