The former executive mayor of Capricorn District Municipality, Gilbert Kganyago says he takes no responsibility of what happened at VBS Bank.
He says the municipalities should have been more careful in what they decided to invest their money in, as well as the laws regarding it.
“I did not introduce the VBS to the Capricorn District Municipal. I did not facilitate or instruct the municipality to invest its money into the VBS. I did not even benefit from the relationship between the municipalities and the VBS and I have always stated this in public…”
Advocate Terry Mutau‘s ‘Great Bank Heist’ report on VBS Mutual Bank mentions a peculiar case of Capricorn District Municipality in Limpopo. According the report, Mariette Venter, who was the municipality’s acting CFO at the time, cautioned against investing in VBS.
She then went on maternity leave. In her absence, two sums totaling R60 million were deposited into the VBS account within a space of five days in December 2015.
On her return Venter insisted on recalling the money from VBS because the investment was against the Municipal Finance Management Act. In July 2016 Venter received a notice of suspension.
The current mayor John Mpe wants the former mayor (Kganyago) to take responsibility because he had knowledge of what was going on with regard to the VBS investments.
“Here we are dealing with a situation whereby municipalities need to take responsibility in terms of them adhering to their own laws rather than trying to transfer some responsibilities somewhere else. As you know, the money that we are talking about does not belong to me neither does it belong to Mr Gilbert Kganyago. It’s the money that belongs to the public and therefore must be protected at all times,” says Mpe.
Mpe goes on to say that the South African Reserve Bank should take responsibility as well.
“The second deposit should not even have happened because they should have been able to track or trace that this is something that does not comply with the law.”
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