Although two men Danny Msiza and Kabelo Matsepe appeared in court Wednesday in relation to the infamous VBS bank heist matter, the DA laments the fact that high-ranking politicians like Julius Malema and Floyd Shibambu are not in the dock.
Speaking to Tshwane Talks outside the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria where the DA was picketing regarding the VBS scandal on Wednesday morning, the DA’s deputy Chief Whip in the national Parliament Baxolile Nodada lamented the conspicuous absence of Malema and Shivambu from the list of the accused.
“We are outside the court today to protest against the VBS bank heist and the looters that have been charged so far, but the key thing for us is that politicians who are implicated in the VBS bank heist have not been investigated thoroughly, hence they are not in the dock today,” he said.
“In November 2018 we realised that there are politicians implicated in siphoning money out of the VBS bank, particularly Floyd Shivambu and Julius Malema, who swindled the bank an amount of money running into millions and millions of rand and duly filed criminal charges against them” explained Nodada.
“In October 2019 we filed an ethics complaint against Malema and Shivambu in Parliament and they were subsequently found guilty by the Parliamentary ethics committee for failure to disclose their financial interests, and now we want to know why the police have not yet investigated Malema and Shivambu regarding the VBS bank heist,” said Nodada.
“Malema and Shivambu have stolen money from poor pensioners and life savings of individuals,” enthused Nodada.
Nodada said as the DA they will be in touch with victims of the VBS bank looting to make sure that justice is served and that they don’t lose their savings and that due reparation is paid to the victims.
“We must hold politicians to the highest ethical standards; they are not above the law; they must be investigated and brought to book,” he said.
“We are a responsible political party that wants to root out corruption wherever it rears its ugly head; corruption is not a victimless crime as it affects the poorest and most vulnerable in the society as is the case in the VBS bank heist,” he said.
Meanwhile, the lawyer representing Matsepe and Msiza, Advocate Shaun Abrahams, argued in court on Wednesday that the prosecution has not made full disclosure of the docket to the accused, thus making it difficult for them to launch a proper defence against allegations levelled at them.
The VBS bank heist scandal stems from a nefarious plot whereby local municipalities, mainly in the Limpopo Province, irregularly invested their funds into VBS bank though by law this is illegal as VBS is a mere mutual bank and not a commercial bank.
It then emerged that several prominent individuals in the country, including the king of BaVhenda tribe himself, Shivambu and Malema, Matsepe and Msiza also got kickbacks from the looted bank’s money in the form of donations/ gratifications/ bribery.
The following is a statement by DA: