DA slams ANC over VBS mayors

Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has slammed the ANC in Gauteng for deciding against firing two mayors over their involvement in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal.

This follows a decision made by the Provincial Integrity Commission headed by Trevor Fowler, recommending that the mayors of Merafong municipality Maphefo Mogale-Letsie and West Rand district municipality mayor Boysie Maneli be fired over unlawful deposits into VBS.

The DA’s constituency head in Merafong, Ina Cilliers said the party was shocked to learn that the ruling party was rejecting its

“own decision” to fire the officials, opting to have the matter escalated to the party’s national leadership for further consideration.

ANC Gauteng provincial secretary Jacob Khawe said regarding investments into VBS Mutual Bank, the provincial executive committee (PEC) noted that there was a process at a national level to “come to the bottom of this matter”. He said the PEC wanted to “further engage” with the national leadership for the sake of consistency in the application of principles when concluding the matter.

“Once that process has been concluded, a special PEC will be called to receive a report and make a final determination.”

Cilliers decried the decision which follows allegations of unlawful deposits to the now defunct bank.

Last month the two reports by auditing firm Delloite on investigations into the two municipalities were made available for public viewing. It found that the investments of R81 million by West Rand district and R50 million by Merafong were unlawful under at least two pieces of legislation.

For the West Rand district municipality, it also found indications of possible kickbacks received by officials, saying private transactions made by at least three officials involved in the investments could have been incentives for securing the hefty investments.