Pillaging of VBS Bank laid bare in messages

LIMPOPO ANC provincial deputy chairperson and Vhembe mayor Florence Radzilani has emerged as one of the key political figures who personally benefited in the rampant looting of the VBS Bank.

The Vhembe District Municipality has been revealed as one of the municipalities that controversially made deposits amounting to millions of rand in the bank.

The damning report on the pillaging of VBS Bank, titled “The Great Bank Heist”, has been revealed through the WhatsApp communication of “VBS fixer” Kabelo Matsepe, a former ANC Youth League leader in the province, that Radzilani protested when she was given only R300 000 for ensuring that the R200 million the municipality had deposited was not withdrawn from the bank.

In a recorded discussion, Matsepe tells former VBS Bank chairman Tshifhiwa Matodzi that Radzilani was unhappy about the kickback she received from the bank.

“The mayor of Vhembe is crying, she says we must give her and the speaker a Christmas because they are the ones who are making sure that we keep that money for six months. We gave her 300k and she cried and said we gave juniors R1.5m and we give her 300k,” the text from Matsepe reads.

“If we can let’s give her 1% or 2% on a level of trust because she did keep her promise that she will block the money from being withdrawn,” Matsepe’s text continues.

Matodzi is recorded in the report as having replied: “Go ahead… But she must know the formula… If we do the formula we are going to do 2% of R200 for two months and thereafter 2% of R150m for four months because they withdrew R50m and it will play around R2.3.

“My thinking is that let’s do it half and promise to give her more when she brings back the R50m they withdrew.”

Advocate Terry Motau, SC, who made the investigation, said while there were many other conversations that cast light on Matsepe’s ubiquitous role in VBS, and where bribes were discussed with certain municipal officials in the province, the conversation between him and Matodzi on Radzilani was the most telling.

“In my view, one of the most illuminating examples of the rampant corruption and bribery that occurred is to be found in a WhatsApp discussion between Matsepe and Matodzi on December 20, 2017,” Motau said.

Numerous calls to Radzilani went unanswered yesterday.