Presidency rejects Ramaphosa knew and failed to act on VBS looting President Cyril Ramaphosa

JOHANNESBURG. – The Presidency “categorically rejects” allegations that President Cyril Ramaphosa knew about corruption at VBS Bank but did not take action, the Presidency said.

On Sunday, City Press reported that President Ramaphosa was allegedly briefed about widespread corruption at VBS early in 2017, but that he did not do anything about it.

The SA Reserve Bank last week released a report titled “The Great Bank Heist”, compiled by advocate Terry Motau and Werksmans Attorneys. It revealed large-scale plundering amounting to close to R2bn.

President Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko said in a statement on Monday that the allegation “is baseless and unsubstantiated”.

“President Ramaphosa has no knowledge of any meeting where he is said to have met any person associated with VBS Mutual Bank where he was purportedly briefed on the matter. Likewise, the claim that President Ramaphosa was forewarned about the impending implosion of VBS Bank is unsubstantiated,” she said.

Khusela said President Ramaphosa learned about the VBS saga through “official channels, including the National Treasury”, and said he then asked for a comprehensive report from Treasury on the issue.

“The President reiterates that the relevant law-enforcement and prosecutorial authorities should act with haste and vigour against those behind this unconscionable act of criminality against the most vulnerable in society. South Africans should not be misled by attempts to divert attention away from those responsible,” Diko said.

Last week, a final investigation report into allegations of corruption at the bank was released.

The report, by Advocate Terry Motau, appointed by the Reserve Bank, recommended that more than 50 individuals be criminally charged and held liable in civil proceedings.

This includes VBS directors, as well as politicians, municipal officials, their relatives and auditors who signed off on the bank’s “fraudulent” financial statements.

“Substantial bribes were paid to certain of VBS’ directors and other related parties in order to buy their silence and to look the other way while the looting was going on,” Motau’s report found.

Meanwhile, the VhaVenda King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana will pay back the money he received from VBS Mutual Bank as “tainted gifts”, his spokesperson said.

King Ramabulana was named as one of those who benefited from the largesse dished out by the bank’s bosses.

“The issue here is not about the king denying or not denying,” his spokesperson, Makonde Mathivha, told broadcaster eNCA on Monday.

“What is at issue here, is that there was corruption at the bank as reported. The name of the king was brought into association with that and the king is at pains, is feeling pain with his subjects who have lost money.”

He said the king was not aware that some of “these gifts and benefits that he received were received from sources which are tainted”.

Mathivha added that the king would sit down with the relevant authorities, break down what he received “from tainted sources”, and determine an “arrangement to repay [that] which was received as a result of corruption”.

Meanwhile, News24 reported on Monday that the ANC’s top 6 was meeting with officials from Limpopo after two of the province’s top 5 were implicated in the explosive report.

ANC Limpopo deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani and treasurer Danny Msiza are named in the report. In it, Msiza is labelled as a political influencer and fixer who got municipalities to invest in VBS. – News24

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