If EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu did steal money from VBS Mutual Bank‚ he would be punished accordingly‚ Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema said on Tuesday.
Addressing a media briefing in Johannesburg‚ Malema said: “The deputy president of the EFF Floyd Shivambu has taken the EFF leadership into his confidence in relation to the VBS media claims and we have no reason to doubt him‚ more so because he is not mentioned in the official Motau VBS report.”
Malema said the EFF was not mentioned in the report‚ nor was it accused of wrongdoing.
The report into the collapse of VBS Mutual by Terry Motau SC‚ released last week‚ mentioned that Shivambu’s brother‚ Brian Shivambu‚ had received R16m in “gratuitous payments” from VBS‚ as part of a nearly R2bn “looting” of the bank.
Brian Shivambu denies any wrongdoing. In a statement last week he said his company‚ Sgameka Projects‚ had been appointed in 2017 to “provide professional consulting services to Vele Investments in their mining and insurance businesses” and had been paid for these services through a VBS account.
Malema said Floyd Shivambu had provided the leadership with his financial statements dating back to 2014.
“We cannot locate any money from VBS‚ we cannot locate money from Sigameka. There are exchanges of money from him to Brian and from Brian to him‚” Malema said.
Malema questioned why the EFF should take action against its deputy president if there was no information to that effect.
Commenting on the report‚ the party said it had expressed great disgust at those who had facilitated the collapse of the bank for selfish and self-enrichment purposes at the expense of the poor.
“VBS Mutual Bank was funded on the deposits of humble rural self-help financial associations‚” Malema said.
Malema‚ meanwhile‚ said the party also rejected any move to shut down VBS Mutual Bank.
“The reported amount that has been lost to VBS is R1.9bn. We know that the African Bank has lost close to R80bn yet it was bailed out by the government and other banks.” — TimesLIVE..