Although VBS Mutual Bank collapsed six years ago, it has been in the headlines for most of the past week following an affidavit by its former chairperson, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, that could well prove to be a smoking gun for many of the perpetrators of the fraud at the heart of the bank’s failure.
At a recent Inside Track webinar, Daily Maverick journalists Ferial Haffajee, Pauli van Wyk, Neesa Moodley and Queenin Masuabi unpacked the details of the case and their coverage of it.
Van Wyk, a Scorpio investigative journalist, first became curious about the story in 2018 when the bank was placed under curatorship. “I wondered, is it possible to steal a bank when it operates in such a well-regulated industry?
“Then Floyd Shivambu (now deputy leader of the EFF) started attacking Ismail Momoniat from National Treasury in Parliament, objecting to Momoniat’s presence on the grounds that he [Momoniat] undermined Africans and thought he was superior to them.”
As Van Wyk dug into the story, sources whispered to her that the EFF and the ANC were involved in the shenanigans at VBS — and that the Public Investment Corporation and KPMG auditors were also involved.
The EFF was running a strong anti-corruption campaign at the time. Later that year, the ANC’s Nhlanhla Nene was dismissed as finance minister a day or two before Advocate Terry Motau’s forensic report on VBS was released.
Haffajee asked Van Wyk how she managed to piece together the credit card trail linking the EFF to VBS and what kind of pressure she came under.
“The pressure was intense,” said Van Wyk. “Painstakingly, I became the spreadsheet queen. I retyped everything into spreadsheets and analysed it for weeks. Then you have to go and verify the information, and ask questions because bank statements don’t always tell the entire story.”
Van Wyk said when it comes to VBS, there are still secrets that she has not uncovered. “I think there’s so much more that the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority can tell us,” she said.
Full disclosure
Matodzi’s witness statement, which was released to media outlets and on social media on 11 July, was a 70-page document that apparently took him about three weeks to write.
“He painstakingly set out details about who was involved and what each person was doing; the shelf companies set up to facilitate the illicit flow of money,” said Daily Maverick financial journalist Neesa Moodley.
“This was a person who was operating all along for his own gain. He fully understood what he was doing as a chartered accountant. But I didn’t really see any remorse in the statement, other than one brief paragraph at the beginning.”
One of the startling allegations in Matodzi’s witness statement was his revelation that the former director-general of National Treasury, Dondo Mogajane, asked for and received a R1-million bribe.
Mogajane has denied this, but the investigative journalism organisation amaBhungane found that R1-million was paid into the bank account of the Baphilile Foundation, which is controlled by the daughters of former Home Affairs minister Hlengiwe Mkhize. Neither Mogajane nor the daughters have responded to this claim.
Daily Maverick political journalist Queenin Masuabi noted that Advocate Dali Mpofu had “to do some verbal gymnastics” when he was interviewed on Newzroom Afrika and said that, yes, the EFF did receive money from VBS, but it did not necessarily equate to a bribe.
“If we look back to that time, it could well have been a bribe. The EFF had been very vocal in their criticism of the loan that VBS gave former president Jacob Zuma, then they were involved with VBS and suddenly they were quiet,” she pointed out.
Masuabi said although the ANC has a step-aside rule, the party had been very clear that members needed to be charged first.
“The ANC inaugural board did mention that they would be having a Provincial Executive Committee meeting where they’d be discussing Danny Msiza, who’s the former treasurer of the province, but also Florence Radzilani who’s the current deputy chair of the ANC in Limpopo and is also an MEC in the province,” she said.
Read more: How VBS monsters ate the poor – the boys’ club, ‘Christmas money’ and anguish of victims
Recalling the early days of breaking the VBS story, Van Wyk said she knew where the money trail led.
“It was startling to see them blatantly lying about it and then obviously fudging the money that went into Floyd Shivambu’s private bank account, which SARS later proved,” she said, adding that the EFF was not seen as corrupt in 2018.
Shivambu and Malema are both from Limpopo, and lived just a few kilometres away from Thohoyandou, where most of the VBS victims came from. Van Wyk said the VBS scandal had played a big part in the EFF losing its credibility. DM
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