In his testimony, Matodzi said he met EFF leader Julius Malema and Shivambu at the party’s Sandton penthouse during the heat of the Nkandla saga as the party had been criticising the bank for giving Zuma the loan.
Matodzi said he promised the party leaders that VBS would pay the EFF an initial R5m and thereafter make R1m monthly donations in return for good PR.
“Floyd indicated they opened an account at VBS Mutual Bank in the name of a company called Sgameka. A R5m transfer as promised was made on my instruction from Malibongwe [Petroleum] to Sgameka on June 8 2017. Subsequent payments were paid from Vele [Investments] or any of Vele’s subsidiaries.
“Myself, Julius and Floyd understood that concept of donation to mean gratification, hence Floyd and Shivambu did not provide the EFF’s own banking details for the ‘donations’,” the statement reads.
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The claim by former VBS Mutual Bank chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi that he had initially paid R5m and then made R1m monthly “donations” to the EFF to clean up the bank’s bad reputation after it gave former president Jacob Zuma a home loan for Nkandla has sparked debate.
The funds were allegedly funnelled through a company owned by Brian Shivambu, brother of the party’s deputy president Floyd Shivambu.
Matodzi was sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison by the Pretoria high court on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to 33 counts including corruption, theft, fraud, money laundering and racketeering activities in contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
‘A R5m lump sum and then R1m paid monthly to EFF’: Jailed VBS boss Tshifhiwa Matodzi’s testimony on cleaning Zuma mess
In his testimony, Matodzi said he met EFF leader Julius Malema and Shivambu at the party’s Sandton penthouse during the heat of the Nkandla saga as the party had been criticising the bank for giving Zuma the loan.
Matodzi said he promised the party leaders that VBS would pay the EFF an initial R5m and thereafter make R1m monthly donations in return for good PR.
“Floyd indicated they opened an account at VBS Mutual Bank in the name of a company called Sgameka. A R5m transfer as promised was made on my instruction from Malibongwe [Petroleum] to Sgameka on June 8 2017. Subsequent payments were paid from Vele [Investments] or any of Vele’s subsidiaries.
“Myself, Julius and Floyd understood that concept of donation to mean gratification, hence Floyd and Shivambu did not provide the EFF’s own banking details for the ‘donations’,” the statement reads.
TimesLIVE
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