Faizel Patel – 18/06/2020
(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Investigative journalist Pauli van Wyk says former VBS and Vele Investments chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi, the alleged kingpin behind the VBS saga looted more than 320 million from the bank for himself while the company he chaired got over a billion rand.

The Hawks on Wednesday confirmed that Eight VBS Bank suspects are expected to appear in the Palm Ridge Regional Court on 47 counts of fraud, racketeering, corruption, theft and money laundering.

Hawks head Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya said the eight men had accrued R122-million to themselves unduly, directly and indirectly, over several months.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Van Wyk says Matodzi wasn’t alone in the looting spree.

“He also had a team that helped him to hide the black hole and the stealing and this teams job was to either to lie to the Reserve Bank or sign-off on fraudulent annual financial statements or just plainly lie to the country and help to keep the screen.”

Van Wyk says Lebeya and Batohi indicated that more arrest would follow.

“We asked them when they expect to arrest the rest of the people, the municipal managers, municipal heads and the rest of the politicians. They declines to give clear answers, decline to react on any names specifically, but they did say wherever the money follows, justice will follow as well and they gave us their promise.”

Van Wyk says while there is a lot of focus on the billions  have been looted form VBS, the impact of the saga has had a devastating effect on poor people who lost entire pensions including their  entire livelihoods when the bank went under.

Listen to the interview with Pauli van Wyk