ANC treasurer implicated in VBS scandal calls allegations a ‘sustained political smear’

Limpopo African National Congress (ANC) provincial treasurer Danny Msiza implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal says the segment of the report on the alleged looting of the bank, as it relates to him, is a “sustained political smear”.

In a statement received by this publication on Thursday, Msiza said: “The segment of the report as it relates to me is therefore not puzzling, but a logical culmination of a sustained political smear with no shred of empirical evidence of wrongdoing.”

The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) commissioned report titled The Great Bank Heist, which was released last Wednesday, implicated Msiza and the deputy chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo, Florence Radzilani.

In the report, Msiza was alleged to have had a hand in ensuring that municipalities illegally deposit to the bank.

The Limpopo ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) announced on Wednesday that it had decided to refer the VBS Mutual Bank report to the party’s national integrity commission for immediate consideration.

READ MORE: Limpopo ANC refers VBS Bank report to ANC integrity body

Msiza said he has voluntarily decided to submit himself to the authority of the ANC’s integrity commission to investigate the allegations levelled against him.

“I will therefore be approaching the integrity commission through the processes available in the ANC to prioritize this matter and offer full co-operation to this investigation,” Msiza said.

He said nothing in the final report points to any illicit gain on his part.

Msiza said the only financial transaction he has with the bank “is a genuine property bond which I am repaying on a monthly basis”.

“Equally, nothing in the report points to any anomaly in this regard, in spite of initial protestations and baseless insinuations by detractors and fellow embedded journalists that this is a so-called soft loan,” Msiza said.

He said his “name is being drawn into this sad episode based purely on untested allegations, gossips, baseless observations, and communication by external parties without my knowledge”.

“There is no irrefutable evidence of any illegal instruction I ever issued to a single municipal official [mayor, municipal manager or CFO] to invest with the bank.

“As I have reiterated before, most municipalities in the province have in anyway been investing with VBS and other banks before my tenure as provincial treasurer.

“However the public is being deliberately misled to believe otherwise.”

Msiza said the misleading narrative in the report that he is “the kingpin” in the VBS scandal “has deeply hurt” his “reputation, dignity” and family.

Msiza criticized advocate Motau for not affording him the opportunity to refute allegations against him in the report.

“I would have expected that a respectable senior counsel of a stature would have known and observed the basic tenets of natural justice that no adverse findings and/or remarks that impugn the dignity and reputation of a person should be made without affording that person an opportunity to be heard.

“What Adv Terry Motau did was to convict me in absentia and left me to be castigated by the court of public opinion as it is happening now.

“It goes without saying that my constitutional rights to dignity have been seriously infringed.”

The ANC Limpopo treasurer said he has instructed his lawyers to institute legal proceedings in the High Court to review and set aside portions of the report which improperly and falsely insinuate any wrongdoing on his part.

“I expect my lawyers to file the papers with the court in the coming weeks,” Msiza said.

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