Madam Speaker, as the Democratic Alliance (DA) said in the first meeting of the portfolio committee of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, we have not forgotten about the municipalities which channeled about R1.2 billion in taxpayers’ money to VBS mutual bank.

The people who live in those municipalities have worked hard to pay for the rates, tariff, and charges that were misappropriated. They should not have to wait until the 2021 local government election for justice to be done in their communities.

The DA is particularly worried that months after the great VBS heist was revealed, another chapter to the story is quietly being written. It might well be called the great VBS escape. It is about how only a few implicated politicians and municipal officials are facing real accountability for their part in the VBS saga.

Some of the mayors have not in fact resigned. They have been redeployed. That is not accountability. It is a quick getaway. The same can be said about the resignation, suspension, and sacking of implicated municipal managers and CFOs. What happens to them, and the municipalities they have helped to destroy, after they leave?

 

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