Limpopo ANC taking back VBS-linked officials ‘a spit in the face of poor’

Following the ANC’s decision to reinstate two senior Limpopo officials implicated in the looting of VBS Bank funds, Thuma mina (send me) a slogan largely affiliated with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidential campaign, has accumulated a different meaning, according to Congress of the People spokesperson Dennis Bloem.

“Thuma Mina (send me)” now means, “go and loot the money of poor people of Limpopo from the VBS Bank,” and your ANC members card will be your protection, he said.

Nothing will happen to you as you are innocent until proven guilty, he maintains.

Nothing but double standards are what the president has come to embody, according to Bloem, who says when Ramaphosa is at Luthuli House, corruption is permitted for as long as you are an ANC deployee.

“When Ramaphosa is at Union Buildings or in parliament or on a public platform then he changes and becomes totally different, turned into vicious bulldog which wants to bite anyone who is in involved in corruption.”

“The disgraceful reinstatement of Limpopo ANC Deputy Chairperson Florence Radzilani and ANC Treasurer Danny Msiza who were prominently mentioned in the Terry Motau VBS Bank scandal is an insult to the poor people of Limpopo and people as a whole. It is a serious blow to the fight against corruption and fraud.”

The ANC confirmed this week that its National Executive Committee opted to reinstate the two officials. Numerous reports had fingered Radzilani in the Great Bank Heist report as allegedly receiving R300 000 as a Christmas gift from the banks’ directors after the municipality deposited money.

Despite the smoke, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule confirmed the NEC’s decision on the pair, and that they would return to work, with immediate effect.

Insisting that the party would never move away from the universal principle of innocent until proven otherwise, he said, the NEC’s decision was final.

Msiza still faces allegations that he used his political influence to persuade mayors and municipal officials to invest hundreds of millions of rands into VBS.

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