Presidency Says Everyone Involved in VBS Looting Must be Held Accountable

Speaking on the sidelines of the cabinet lekgotla in Pretoria on Saturday, Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the government hopes Tshifhiwa Matodzi's guilty plea will allow law enforcement to move with speed to catch the other perpetrators. 

FILE: VBS Mutual Bank in Thohoyandou. Picture: Sethembiso Zulu/EWN

JOHANNESBURG - The presidency says everyone involved in the looting of the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank should be held accountable. 

This week, former Venda Business Society chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi was sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison for his role in fraud. 

Matodzi's leaked affidavit implicates leaders of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a former director-general in the National Treasury and the South African Communist Party.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Cabinet lekgotla in Pretoria on Saturday, Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the government hopes Matodzi's guilty plea will allow law enforcement to move with speed to catch the other perpetrators. 

"Now you know the scale of the looting, the laundering, the disregard of laws but you have not yet quantified the impact of the VBS saga to the ordinary people of Vhembe in particular - the woman of the stokvels, the burial societies, the aged who had lost their pension funds and although government tried to repay it was not enough, the impact had just been dire."