Revealed: ANC’s R2m VBS loot
This week ANC MPs shouted “pay back the money” during a debate on the VBS Mutual Bank scandal in which the governing party and other opposition parties united in attacking the EFF.
EFF deputy president and chief whip Floyd Shivambu came under attack over revelations that his younger brother‚ Brian‚ had received R16m from the R1.9bn that was looted from VBS.
However, the tables might soon turn as the Sunday Times today reveals how the ANC scored a R2m “donation” from the bank to pay a service provider during the governing party’s 2016 local election campaign.
The donation — discussed in a series of shocking WhatsApp exchanges between VBS majority shareholder Tshifhiwa Matodzi, who was executive chair of Vele Investments, and the former head of the treasury at VBS bank, Phophi Mukhodobwane — was requested by then ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize.
The ANC is now scrambling to distance itself from the VBS fallout, the biggest financial scandal since democracy was ushered in with the 1994 elections.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said this week that the ANC had no record of the R2m donation, but said it would launch its own probe. It has undertaken to pay the money back, if it was received, and R250,000 paid by VBS to the ANC for a table at the party’s gala dinner during January 8 celebrations in East London.
The bank is now in provisional liquidation and was recently the subject of a scathing report, “The Great VBS Bank Heist”, by advocate Terry Motau.
Mkhize told the Sunday Times he had once been invited to VBS offices to meet its executives but said no business dealings or donations were discussed.
He said all donations to the ANC were recorded and could be verified with the office of the current treasurer-general.
“If other funds were exchanged with VBS in the name of the ANC while I was still the treasurer-general of the organisation, I am quite keen for this to be disclosed in full so we can expose such scams publicly,” he said.
Matodzi did not respond to detailed questions sent to him relating to the conversations he had with Mukhodobwane. He referred all queries to the liquidators of Vele. They could not be reached for comment.
Read the full story in the Sunday Times.
