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The EFF notes the forensic report released by the South African Reserve Bank which demonstrates how VBS Mutual Bank was defrauded. The report shows that VBS defrauding is possibly the greatest bank heists in South Africa with close to R2 billion of municipal and taxpayers money looted. 

The EFF reiterates its position that all who are responsible and illegally benefited from the fraud must be criminally prosecuted immediately. As we have previously indicated, we also reiterate that they must be black listed. Above all, the law enforcement agency must do all they can to ensure that all the money that can be recovered must be paid back in full, including attaching properties of the individuals who benefited from the defrauding of VBS. 

The EFF is concerned by the findings that the bank cannot be saved. Shutting down the bank will not help efforts to increase black participation in the financial sector. A recovery plan that can save the bank or support of other black owned prospective black license applicants to service the people in the rural area with PTOs must be devised.

Finally, it is concerning that such looting has been allowed to happen since 2015 and all the much celebrated institutional mechanisms of reporting and monitoring banks by the SARB were not sufficient to prevent the defrauding of VBS. Only upon the bank giving Jacob Zuma a loan did concerns arise and decisions to closely look into its affairs happen.

We call on the SARB to review its ability and mechanisms to monitor banks as the failure of VBS is inadvertently the failure of the SARB itself to protect ordinary citizens from being scammed by institutions masquerading as banks are under its watch.

Issued by EFF