Convicted former VBS Mutual Bank chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi, has opened a can of worms with his explosive affidavit detailing how the bank was looted of over R2.3 billion of its investors.
Matodzi implicated individuals and political parties, including prominent leaders of the EFF and the ANC.
He was handed a 15-year jail term by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, last week after pleading guilty to 33 counts which included corruption, theft, fraud and money laundering.
Burial societies; stokvels; individuals, particularly the elderly; and municipalities continue to count their losses six years after the brazen looting of nearly R2.3 billion of the hard-earned money they had invested in the mutual Bank.
The scandal, branded “The Great Bank Heist”, was exposed in 2018 by advocate Terry Motau, who was appointed to investigate it. He penned a report afterwards that blew the lid off the scandal.
In the statement that also implicated the SA Communist Party, Matodzi wrote in part: “After the SACP wrote a statement that was damaging to the VBS brand which prompted Matodzi to seek a meeting with the SACP.
“I instructed Gogoro communications to obtain contacts for the relevant SACP individuals.
“Gogoro arranged a meeting to meet with the SACP Gauteng team headed by Mr Jacob Mamabolo and the VBS team led by Andile (Ramavhunga) (former VBS CEO).
“I did not attend this meeting. Another meeting was arranged between Mamabolo and I at a boutique hotel in Groenkloof, Pretoria.
“The meeting was a follow up of the meeting that was held by Andile's team and how the relationship between VBS and the SACP could be improved.
“Another meeting was held between myself and Mamabolo at the Palazzo Hotel in Fourways. At this meeting discussions were general in nature and Mamabolo wanted to know more about how members of the SACP could be approached to bank with VBS.
“Around July 2017 I received a call from Mamabolo seeking assistance with settlement of the SACP conference bill of R3 million at Birchwood Hotel in Kempton Park.
“On July 6, 2017, the said amount was paid directly to Birchwood Hotel from MML food services. There were no further requests received from the SACP regarding payment,” Matodzi wrote in the statement.
The bank, meant to benefit black people who were looking to borrow money to buy houses, was started in 1982 by the Venda homeland government. Its sole mandate was to help deserving residents of Venda buy houses.
That all changed in 2016, when the bank loaned R7 million to former president Jacob Zuma after the controversy around his Nkandla homestead’s multi million-rand refurbishments.
In 2017, the bank started making headlines after some clients approached the media to say that the money they had invested in the banks was unavailable.
It was a downward spiral from there as more VBS customers discovered, to their shock, that their money had been stolen.
Municipalities in Limpopo, North West and Gauteng had irregularly invested a combined amount of over R1.6 billion. The money had presumably vanished into thin air.
Over 50 people were implicated in the scandal. Some of the ruling ANC heavyweights were arrested, among them the then-Limpopo ANC treasurer, Danny Msiza. He has been facing a court case and was forced to step aside from the ruling party’s activities, disqualifying him from contesting in his party’s elections.
Msiza and scores of others are facing more than 100 charges for their alleged roles in the heist. They include Matodzi, bank executives, politicians, municipal officials and managers.
In the 206-page indictment, the National Prosecuting Authority alleged that Msiza was the central figure between VBS and the municipalities that had illegally invested money, in contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Msiza, Matodzi, former ANCYL Limpopo leader Kabelo Matsepe, Rallion Razinnane, Takunda Edgar Michele, Tshianeo Madadze, Andile Malusi, Ramavhunga Mulimisi, Solomon Maphosa, Simpho Malabar, Phalaphala Ramikosi, Thifhelimbilu Nesane, Paul Manila and Robert Madzonga are out on bail of between R50 000 and R100 000 each, after being charged with the 180 counts, among them racketeering and corruption.
The South African Reserve Bank placed VBS under curatorship and a forensic investigation was instituted to establish exactly what had gone wrong.
Susan Mudau, 41, had initially told Independent media that her life had been turned upside down since she recommended that her burial society invest R160 000 in VBS five years ago.
Mudau, who comes from Sibasa near Thohoyandou in Limpopo, said she had persuaded her joint burial society, consisting of vegetable traders plying their trade at a market in Sibasa, to invest their savings in VBS because she had learnt that it was a lucrative investment.
She said her ordeal started when they had their first death in March 2018, and three signatory members had gone to withdraw R8 000 from the bank. A senior bank official had told them that the money was unavailable because the bank did not have any money.
She said: “The rest of the members blame me for this. They say I knew when I convinced them it would happen. Some of them have not spoken to me ever since, and I had to quit my trading stall to go to the bank to attempt to get the money back for the past three years.”
They were able to prove they had invested in the VBS bank and were granted R100 000 by Nedbank.
She told Independent Media that despite getting some of the money back, she had been unable to convince the society to re-admit her as a member. She was surviving by selling fruit in her neighbourhood to put food on the table for her and her four children.
In March 2018, then-minister of finance Nhlanhla Nene placed VBS under curatorship. That meant that management and the board were relieved of their powers and a curator took over the bank’s affairs.
Through the curatorship, the SA Reserve Bank was given the legal means to create the necessary mechanisms to implement a resolution plan to stabilise and restore a bank.
Saturday Star
mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za