Municipal manager’s R120m VBS court case postponed

Ngobeni faces corruption charges

The VBS Mutual Bank case involving a Collins Chabane municipality manager, Tsakani Ngobeni, has been postponed to July 29 for further investigations.

Ngobeni appeared briefly before the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court yesterday.

She was previously released on R50,000 bail after being charged with corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

Ngobeni, is accused of having deposited R120m of the municipality’s funds, in violation of the MFMA and the Collins Chabane municipal policy, which dictate that municipal deposits must be restricted to banks that are registered in terms of the Banks Act, which VBS was not.

Fourteen accused collectively face 188 counts of racketeering, corruption, fraud, theft and money laundering in connection with the VBS corruption scandal

In October last year, one of the accused, former VBS Bank CFO Philip Truter, reached a plea and sentence agreement with the state which saw him sentenced to an effective seven-year jail term after pleading guilty to six counts, including corruption and fraud.