No honour among VBS looting accused
Accusations of lies, deception and betrayal fly as fallout over R2bn bank fraud deepens
THE fallout over the VBS Mutual Bank scandal deepened yesterday, with some of those implicated passing the blame.
Vele Investment chief executive Robert Madzonga accused former VBS chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi of deception and betrayal over the alleged looting spree of close to R2 billion.
Madzonga’s comments yesterday came as Vhavenda King Toni Peter Mphephu-Ramabulana said he was willing to pay back the money he received from VBS if it was proven to be proceeds of illegal activities.
Matodzi is a founder and chairperson of Vele Investments and has been identified as the kingpin and the biggest beneficiary of the alleged fraud and corruption after he secured R325 million while Madzonga received R30m. This is according to the report by the SA Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority, complied by advocate Terry Motau which revealed them to be among 53 people who received gratuitous payment from 2015 to this year, which Motau recommended be recouped.
Yesterday, Madzonga denied deriving any benefit from the looting of the bank and insisted that every cent he received from both Vele Investments and VBS was related to income for his work.
He, however, accused Matodzi and VBS executives of betrayal, lies and dishonesty.
“I feel betrayed by him. They betrayed us. More than three times before and immediately after March when we were put into liquidation, I asked him. When he opposed the liquidation, I cancelled it in court and I told him that as the CEO I am not going to be made to stop this thing because I have already been alerted by the reserve bank of looting,” he said.
Madzonga derived large rewards relating to the looting, much of which was in the form of undeclared income, according to Motau.
In the report, Motau said while Madzonga was employed by VBS for about a month in May or June as its acting chief operating officer (COO) in 2016, his account at VBS still showed receipt of a monthly salary in September and October from the bank.
During the same period, he was paid R300 000 monthly by Vele Investments as its COO from July.
Madzonga could not explain the discrepancy, only maintaining it was money due to him as an employee. “There is nothing that has come to me as a looting or something unexplained or whatever. I said to Motau and his team that they must point to me one thing that did not come as a salary or board fees or that R4.5m which was the signing fee bonus when I was to become chief executive of Vele.”
When he opposed liquidation, I cancelled it… I told him I’m not going to be made to stop this thing Robert Madzonga Vele chief executive
Madzonga’s implication in the scandal also included a questionable R15m payment from a Vele Financial Services account to VBS which he told Motau was a loan repayment from a friend which was aimed at rescuing the bank’s deteriorating cash flow.
While Motau rejected the explanation, Madzonga maintained yesterday that the R15m was not linked to the looting scandal.
“It is the money I have asked (Tshepo) Mathopo to put in through to the bank to assist the bank with liquidity. In March, five days before it was put into curatorship, I put my R3m from FNB and Tshepo put R15m. First they said the transaction paid there was to conceal fraud and now they have changed the statement and are saying it should have been for Ntsika,” Madzonga said.
He admitted that he still had four cars and a house bond which was still serviced by VBS.
Matodzi could not be reached for comment.
Ramabulana yesterday issued a statement offering to pay back money that was shown to have been illegal proceeds from the scandal, saying that the financial ruin of his people was inimical to the founding members of the Venda Building Society.
“In my capacity as a king of the Vhavenda people, I receive various grants including financial support from various individuals and entities. Any such amounts as may be shown to have been payments flowing from fraudulent and/or criminal sources involving Venda Building Society (VBS), I will have received without knowledge of the criminal wrongdoing which the report details,” he said.
“I irrevocably offer to repay any amount which will be shown to have been proceeds of illegalities in the report as soon as they are computed and am directed where the payment must be made and the terms of such payment. The financial ruin, the cold theft to the vulnerable of our people is inimical to the vision my father has as a founding member of this building society.”
Ramabulana was accused of using the bank’s money to purchase luxury items such as cars, a helicopter and a house in Dainfern golf estate.
Following the VBS fallout, Ramabulana threatened to open a case of fraud and corruption against Madzonga and the former VBS chairperson Matodzi, saying that they had hoodwinked him into believing that the luxuries were gifts and that they had left him with a R11m debt.