The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has welcomed the Pretoria High Court decision granting them permission to liquidate assets of VBS Mutual Bank. In the statement, the Reserve Bank says it will continue to work with the curator to make sure that as much money as possible is recovered on behalf of depositors.
The Reserve Bank approached the court after a forensic report by Advocate Terry Motau and Werksman Attorneys revealed massive looting. The report titled ‘Greatest Bank Heist’ implicates 50 companies and people including African National Congress (ANC) provincial politicians and the brother of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Deputy President Floyd Shivambu.
In other developments, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked the Public Protector to investigate the scandal and hold all those implicated accountable.
Econometrix economist Sam Rolland says those tasked with the liquidation process of VBS will ensure the protection of depositors who originally invested money with the bank.
Rolland says a large percentage of retail deposits will be recovered, ” It’s likely that those deposits will be secure and figure being estimated to be around 97 % of retail deposits will be covered under Reserve Bank protect mechanism. We not likely to see very much disruption in the bank, or disruption on the consumer but the unfortunate byproduct of the liquidiation is that ultimately VBS will cease to exist.”
The Leader of the Bolsheviks Party at the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality in Limpopo, Seun Mogotsi says they welcome the decision to dissolve assets belonging to the VBS Bank. The municipality illegally invested R20-million with the now-liquidated bank.
A council meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday to discuss the fallout of the investment.
Mogotsi says the money owed to the public should be paid back.
Click below for the Greatest Bank Heist report :
