VBS Bank’s R16m to Shivambu’s brother

Great Bank Heist report names EFF deputy president Floyd’s brother Brian as a ‘beneficiary’.

The Great Bank Heist report into looting of VBS Bank, compiled by advocate Terry Motau, assisted by Werksmans Attorneys, has implicated EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu’s brother Brian as one of more than 50 people who “gratuitously” received money from VBS Bank.

“It emerges from the forensic accountants’ report that the amount of R1 894 923 674 was gratuitously received from VBS by 53 persons of interest, both natural and juristic, from March 1 2015, to June 17 2018,” Motau writes.

He then lists the alleged recipients, with Shivambu’s brother on the list as having allegedly benefited from a sum of more than R16 million.

While the involvement of Shivambu’s brother does not implicate the EFF second-in-command, the party has in recent months made headlines with its vehement defence of the bank.

“The EFF is aware that VBS is being victimised due to a loan it gave to Jacob Zuma for a house in Nkandla,” the party said in a statement in March. “Had it been a white-owned bank that had offered Zuma a loan, they would not be subject to victimisation today.”

Around the same time, leader Julius Malema called for a picket at the SA Reserve Bank over what he called an attack on the bank.

“We can’t have the black-owned bank attacked,” he said, adding he believed it to be the only bank willing to give mortgages to black people in rural areas.”

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said on Twitter last night: “The EFF position is unequivocal... whoever is involved and stated as having defrauded or looted VBS must be criminally prosecuted. PERIOD!”

Shivambu could not be reached for comment.