By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Lobby group AfriForum has opened a criminal case against Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, relating to the VBS scandal.
In a statement on Friday, AfriForum said, “The planned and repeated fraud, corruption and money laundering offences allegedly committed by EFF leaders Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu may meet the requirements for racketeering, as defined in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).”
The move comes after the former chairman of VBS Mutual Bank, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, pleaded guilty last week to 33 counts of corruption, theft, fraud, money laundering and a pattern of racketeering activities, for which he was sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison.
Matodzi entered a plea deal and signed an explosive 70-page witness statement, which laid bare the corruption that rotted the VBS Bank from within. In the document, Matodzi makes allegations inciminating senior members of VBS management and high ranking politicians that cross various parties – from the EFF, ANC and SACP.
Matodzi explains in his affidavit how he had asked to meet the leadership of the EFF because they had been criticising his bank after it had granted former president Jacob Zuma a home loan for upgrades to his Nkandla residence. Matodzi said that at that meeting with Malema and Shivambu in 2017, he had agreed to make payments to the party’s leadership.
In his version, Matodzi told them they had to open an account at VBS and that he would “donate” R5-million immediately, with further regular payments of R1-million a month to the EFF.
On Thursday, Malema and the progressive caucus partners in Parliament, briefed the media ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Opening of Parliament speech. During the briefing, Malema said he’s “not scared about VBS.” There’s no affidavit… it is a sponsored propaganda that is aimed at intimidating the EFF… No leader of the EFF received VBS money,” Malema was quoted as saying.
In an affidavit backing his criminal complaint, Afriforum Kallie Kriel refers to the revelations made in Matodzi’s witness statement.
“This alleged criminal conduct should no longer be considered in isolation from the so-called ‘VBS scandal’ suspects, but should also include the suspicious, and in my opinion unexplored, accusations that point to the EFF political party as an enterprise, as defined in POCA,” said Kriel.
“I submit that the publicly available documented information constitutes enough reasonable suspicion of the establishment of an EFF enterprise as determined by POCA and a history of planned, ongoing and repeated participation or involvement in criminal conduct by these individuals. This requires diligent and steadfast intervention by the authorities in a manner where they live up to the expectation that they will conduct their constitutional obligations without fear, favour or prejudice,” added Kriel.
In its affividavit, AfriForum said it was urging law enforcement authorities to “look at the bigger picture and broaden their investigation to include previous allegations of theft, money laundering, fraud and corruption”.