Treasury, SARB reject Sexwale’s allegations

THE National Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) have challenged ANC veteran and businessman Tokyo Sexwale to provide them with proof that he deposited billions of rand with the central bank.

Sexwale made the claims on eNCA talk show Truth to Power hosted by JJ Tabane on Sunday night.

During the interview, Sexwale indicated that he had raised billions of rand and that the funds were channelled to the central bank in 2016.

He also alleged that former president Jacob Zuma and incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa were aware of the funds, saying it was for those reasons that Zuma had announced free education during the first day of the ANC elective conference in December 2017.

Sexwale also said that the funds were meant to assist the government to improve the country’s infrastructure, such as the procurement of trains and bullet trains, but that National Treasury and SARB had none of it.

The former Gauteng premier and Human Settlements minister said they had set aside billions of rand for the fight against Covid-19 and to clear the spiralling debt of university students, when they realised that some of the funds had gone missing while under the care of the central bank.

“This is a police matter. We opened a case with the police two weeks ago,” Sexwale said.

In a clearly worded reaction to the claims, the National Treasury under Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and SARB governor Lesetja Kganyago made a plea to Sexwale to furnish them with details to support his claim.

“The SARB can confirm that all cross-border transactions are reported to the SARB by commercial banks, who are appointed as authorised dealers in foreign exchange transactions. The SARB has concluded that there is no evidence to support the existence of such funds.

“If Mr Sexwale believes otherwise, the onus is on him and his unknown sponsor to provide independent written proof of the existence and/or transfer of such funds, as well as certified copies of actual identification and citizenship of such ‘donors’, in line with the normal FICA-type anti-money laundering requirements,” Mboweni and Kganyago said.

They said the allegations made by Sexwale on alleged billions that had been deposited at the SARB pointed to a common scam.

“Over the years, National Treasury and the SARB have received many such requests for, or promises of, billions (and now trillions) of rands or dollars, and from experience regard these as simply scams.”

They added: “Any claim that such funds are meant for deserving causes such as Covid-19 relief, social grants or grants for free education are simply empty promises, to secure the interest of the potential victim,” the statement said. According to the National Treasury and the SARB, they had previously received correspondence from Sexwale and many others that alleged that billions of rand had been stolen from a fund that had been referred to as the “White Spiritual Boy Trust” and which was set up by a foreign donor.

“It is further alleged that there are trillions of dollars in the said fund and that, inter alia, a certain Mr Goodwin Erin Webb was its mandated representative in South Africa. On investigation, the SARB can confirm that it had no record of the existence of the said fund and it had advised Mr Sexwale in writing that, given the SARB’s experience and knowledge of this and other similar matters, it could only conclude that the alleged fund was a scam,” the statement said.

Last night Sexwale was not available to react to the statement.