Premier Stan Mathabatha in damage control mode over VBS Mutual Bank

Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha went on a damage control drive over the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, divorcing the whole saga from “politics”.

Speaking on the occasion of the provincial budget lekgotla at Bela-Bela’s Zebula Estate on Wednesday 14 November, he said the VBS Mutual Bank saga was not “politics or political point-
scoring”.

The lekgotla was attended by MECs, officials from the Waterberg District Municipality and many other levels of government and the private sector.

In his opening remarks, Mathabatha said the unfolding “nightmare” in the VBS Mutual Bank saga was about ordinary men and women who worked hard to invest money and secure the future of their offspring.

“These are the men and women whose investments have been liquidated by greed and brazen criminality. The VBS story is about the misuse of public resources and the total disregard of the laws
and prescripts that govern the use and management of public resources,” he said.

Mathabatha further said his government knew that the National Treasury did warn municipalities against investing in VBS Mutual Bank.

“We now all know that municipalities were made aware that VBS was not a registered (commercial) bank in terms of the Banks Act. Whilst the decision to invest with VBS was in violation of the law, we cannot ignore the significance of the corrective action taken by those municipalities,” he said.

— The BEAT