By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Civil rights organisation AfriForum says should the State fail to prosecute Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu, they will consider private prosecution.
The organisation said, it had instructed its legal team to formulate charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering against Malema and Shivambu, adding that these charges will soon be lodged with the police.
The move comes after a leaked affidavit by VBS Mutual Bank’s former chairperson Tshifhiwa Matodzi detailed how the EFF and its leaders allegedly benefitted from the now-defunct mutual bank.
He alleged that R5-million was originally paid, followed by monthly donations of R1-million and a R4-million loan.
The bank collapsed in 2018 after three years of looting by executives and politicians in a scandal dubbed “the great bank heist”.
Matodzi was sentenced by the Pretoria High Court after entering into a plea deal with prosecutors.
In the leaked affidavit, Matodzi detailed how he met Malema and Shivambu at a penthouse in Sandton in 2017 to discuss the payments.
“AfriForum also requested Advocate Gerrie Nel and his team at AfriForum’s Private Prosecutions Unit to monitor the case and to put pressure on the prosecution process should it appear that the National Prosecuting Authority is dragging its feet,” AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said on Friday.
“Should the state fail to prosecute Malema and Shivambu, AfriForum will consider private prosecution as an alternative,” says Kriel.
Kriel believes Matodzi’s statement provides sufficient grounds for the NPA to obtain a preservation order on Malema and Shivambu’s assets.
“The state’s failure to prosecute Malema for his part in the On Point Engineering corruption case has apparently given him the impression that he is untouchable and that he can simply continue with his involvement in alleged corrupt activities.
“That is why it is important that Malema and Shivambu are prosecuted for the plundering of VBS, to send a very clear message that nobody is above the law,” Kriel added.
The EFF has yet to comment on the allegations.
However, Malema broke his silence in a post on X that stated that all media inquiries should refer to archives.
In a statement on Friday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) demanded police investigate Malema and Shivambu, against whom it had laid charges in 2018 over the VBS affair.
The party has now written to the chairperson of the police portfolio committee asking him to take action.
“We have written to the Police Portfolio Committee Chair, Ian Cameron, requesting that he summons SAPS to appear before the committee and explain why there has been no progress into the charges that were laid against Malema and Shivambu in 2018 over VBS,” the party said.
ActionSA also demanded a fresh investigation into the duo.
A 2018 report by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) detailed how R2.3 billion was stolen from VBS over three years by 53 individuals, including executives and politicians.