The Venda Building Society (VBS) bank heist scandal which was discovered after the SA Reserve Bank commissioned an investigation makes for a depressing and harrowing read as it affects poor people.
To read that a chairperson of the institution, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, pocketed a cool R325m not because of services rendered, but owing to alleged graft, is extremely outrageous.
The man allegedly splurged on luxury vehicles, posh properties and expensive exotic holidays using other people’s money. The sheer lack of compunction from all the culprits as they helped themselves to their ill-gotten gains, says a lot about our society in general and their background, in particular.
One’s background and upbringing play a vital role in shaping character and behaviour as psychologists tell us.
A home which instils values such as respect, honour, hard work and sacrifice, more often than not, produces a child who later on becomes an upstanding citizen in society.
However, a home which frowns upon these values, produces children who become troublesome in society. The troubles wrought by children from dysfunctional homes are reflected in the murders, robberies and rape that are invariably reported in the media.
Some people will indeed argue that not all crimes that I have mentioned are committed by children from dysfunctional homes. They will insist that children from “normal families” commit crimes. Although I would agree with that fact, it is also neither here nor there.
The VBS folks who allegedly helped themselves on other people’s money makes one wonder about their upbringing. The fact that there is a chief among them, Chief Mphephu-Ramabulana, makes it all the more troubling.
A chief is supposed to be the guardian of a society’s values and how the chief could not stop the rot is just beyond me. At the very least he should have checked the source of his alleged “donation” or “gift”.
Promising to pay back the money as it was reported on Monday, is small comfort to the people who have lost their life’s savings.
If the chief always had money (from which he is going to make the payment, I assume) why did he take other people’s money to start with? I am not sure I am convinced by his argument that he was not aware that the money may have been stolen.
To receive R17m – and think that it is a mere donation from your subjects who are supposedly poor – is preposterous!
For goodness sake, where would they get such money? Come on; give us a break honourable chief.
What kind of society would allow such individuals to thrive? Why would such individuals who, ought to have been known by most members of society that they are either working or not working, feel free to flaunt their “wealth?”. What does this kind of behaviour teach our youth?
Will it not induce the youth to frown upon hard work and sacrifice and regard instant gratification as something to strive for? Where were whistle-blowers to sound the alarm long before the Reserve Bank ordered investigations into activities of the bank?
All these questions flood one’s mind as the story keeps developing and some of the culprits keep denying involvement.
Brian Shivambu, a brother to Floyd Shivambu, deputy president of the Economic Freedom Fighters, denies that he pocketed about R16m and that he had subsequently given the latter a sum of R10m.
Floyd also denies that he even received such a sum of money. One would not expect anyone to admit to wrongdoing after this kind of shameful and brazen looting.
An inquiry will surely lay bare all the goings on in the bank, though it will not mean that the money will be returned.
As the media focuses on the culprits and flash into the public domain their ill-gotten gains, we seem to be oblivious of the impact of this greed on the people who have lost their money.
Queues of desperate men and women were shown earlier this year visiting the bank to make withdrawals.
Some even slept outside the bank as they wanted to be first in line when it opened the next morning. One would assume that at the time people may not have been aware that their beloved bank was being looted by their fellow citizens.
As the Reserve Bank placed the VBS bank under curatorship and allowed limited withdrawals, the people may not have been aware that their homeboys had helped themselves to their money.
Such is human greed, that it is oblivious to human suffering and induces the perpetrator to think only of himself or herself. To the perpetrators, the sufferings of the old men and women amount to nothing, as their motive was to receive more and more to satisfy their insatiable appetite.
While many old women and men could have lost almost everything, some of the perpetrators seem to be more concerned with their tarnished reputations.
Where were their characters when they had their hands in the cookie jar?
Maybe that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
We shall await the fate of these culprits and one hopes that they will be severely dealt with...