The minority shareholders of Venda Building Society (VBS) Mutual Bank have vowed not to participate in the ANC’s internal consultation process
on the reinstatement of Limpopo
party leaders implicated in the looting scandal.
They said this was because the
ANC and the government allowed the “illegal and abrupt” liquidation of the institution without their involvement.
In a statement released on Saturday, the minority shareholders accused
the ANC of having allowed the National Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank to deprive the Vha-Venda
people of their proud heritage in
pursuance of factional political battles.
This comes after ANC secretary general Ace Magashule told the media this week that the party had reinstated Limpopo ANC deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani and provincial treasurer Danny Msiza pending consultation with stakeholders affected by the scandal.
Radzilani, the former mayor of Vhembe District Municipality, had been accused of recieving a R300 000 Christmas “gift” while Msiza was alleged to have been a kingpin. Both maintain their innocence and challenged the report by Adv Terry Motau on behalf of the SARB.
The shareholders welcomed the reinstatement of Radzilani and Msiza.
“We, the minority shareholders of VBS note and welcome the resolution by ANC to reinstate Two PEC leaders who have been suspended for the past two years.
“As minority shareholders, we hope this will go a long way towards the depolarisation of the VBS matter for narrow factional battles within the ANC. Equally, we are not interested in participating in any ANC internal consultation processes because when VBS Bank was abruptly and illegally closed by an Indian deputy governor of the Reserve Bank and an Indian liquidator in spite of our plea, this fell on deaf ears. Even today we are completely sidelined from the liquidation process by the same Indian liquidator,” they said in the statement.
They reiterated their call for the return of the bank to the people of Venda, saying it was destroyed despite their plan to save it.
“We remain shocked on how the ANC democratic government could allow this bank to be liquidated, more so when we have presented concrete proposals with sound financial models to the Reserve Bank and Treasury. This was outrightly rejected because a pre-conceived decision has been taken to close the Bank at all costs so as to deprive the Vha-Vhenda people of
their Proud Heritage and deepen factional battles within the ANC, in particular Limpopo.”