The South African Communist Party (SACP) has refuted allegations that it, or its members, had benefitted from the VBS Mutual Bank scandal.
The Reserve Bank’s report titled the ‘ Great Bank Heist’ has linked about 50 people, or companies, to losses at VBS caused by mismanagement and fraud amounting to about R2 billion. Former VBS Bank chair, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, has claimed that the SACP is among political parties that benefitted from the scandal.
The SACP’s First Deputy General Secretary, Solly Mapaila, says they accept Limpopo SACP Secretary, Gilbert Kganyago’s side of the story.
“No, we have not received anything from VBS. We heard the allegations, checked with our finances, there was nothing like – we haven’t received money from VBS. There was one mentioned in the report and we had a discussion with him and he explained himself, that’s the provincial secretary there. His explanation was that he only came to know about the VBS issue when there was a query from VBS about the municipality withdrawing funds from VBS and he was not involved in anything that would have transacted with VBS. The municipality would have transacted with VBS before he joined the municipality as the executive mayor,” says Mapaila.
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