DA opposed to government’s VBS rescue plan

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo is concerned about reports indicating that the African National Congress (ANC) is considering political intervention to save VBS Mutual Bank (VBS) from liquidation by making it a provincial bank to be run by the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda). The ANC, however, denies the allegation.
DA Provincial Leader, Jacques Smalle said in a media release that the rescue plan was a backhanded attempt by the ANC to continue looting. “The DA questions the possibility of the provincial government being granted a banking licence at all. The fact remains that the forensic investigation into the VBS scandal must be completed as a matter of urgency, and should be done independently as this is the only way to ensure accountability,” Smalle reckons.
According to Smalle, Limpopo has been the worst affected by the ongoing VBS saga, with key members of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee and ANC Youth League being directly implicated. “Any attempt to move VBS under the control of the Limpopo provincial government, would basically be giving them the keys to the vault and should not be considered,” Smalle said and added that the DA has already laid charges of fraud, racketeering and corruption against the executives of VBS Mutual Bank, municipal managers and chief financial officers of the municipalities that made deposits at VBS. “Residents in most municipalities that had made deposits with VBS bank experience poor service delivery on a daily basis due to chronic mismanagement. Under these circumstances, VBS must therefore not be ‘rewarded’ for aiding and abetting the misuse of public resources,” Smalle said.
The DA also filed notices of motions of no confidence in the mayors of municipalities that invested funds at VBS in contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act on Friday.
“The DA is the only party that believes in accountability and will today once again attempt to clean up the mess and destruction created by the ANC. Preceding this step, the DA explored all possible avenues available to hold all those implicated accountable. This included laying charges of fraud, racketeering and corruption charges against the executives of VBS Mutual Bank and the municipal managers and chief financial officers at the affected municipalities,” DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Kevin Mileham, said at a media briefing in the city on Friday.
ANC reacts to allegations
In a media release on Monday, ANC Provincial Secretary, Soviet Lekganyane said that the ANC rejects with utter contempt any malicious intention to portray it as an insensitive lot complicit in the VBS debacle and being desperate to use public resources at Leda or any institution to bail out mismanagement and corruption that brought VBS to its knees.
“We are administering these institutions in our fiduciary responsibilities and should at all times exhibit high levels of morality and professional ethics. No meeting of the ANC could ever arrive at a decision to commit state resources to a bottomless pit as that will be tantamount to endorsing corruption. We should know what happened and what informed certain decisions to be made before we can prescribe a remedy,” Lekganyane said and added that governance institutions that have made investments with the Bank will be made to account in accordance with prescripts regulating management of public funds. “We will not be obfuscated and no amount of gerrymandering will make us drop the ball,” he concluded.

Story & photo: BARRY VILJOEN
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