Limpopo premier drags feet over VBS Bank looters – Samwu

The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in Limpopo said their patience with Premier Stan Mathabatha is wearing thin, and accused him of acting at a snail’s pace in getting rid of those entangled in the looting of VBS Mutual Bank funds.

The union, which represents workers at more than 25 municipalities in the province, said yesterday that instead of implementing a decision of the ANC NEC, Mathabatha was employing delaying tactics in order to protect his political juntas.

Samwu Limpopo provincial secretary Patrick Aphane yesterday said: “Mathabatha and his ANC better take action now, or else the ANC stands to lose not only trust from its people but also votes in the coming government elections. This is so because our people are disgruntled and disillusioned. How then do you expect them to cast their votes in their favour when you keep on disappointing them?” he asked.

Samwu told The Citizen they wanted the ANC in Limpopo to recall current ANC deputy chairperson, Florence Radzilani and ANC treasurer Danny Msiza.

The two have been listed in Advocate Terry Motau’s Great Bank Heist report.

The report alleges that the two ANC bigwigs are among the 53 businessmen and women, shareholders, traditional leaders and political parties that looted nearly R2 billion from the liquidated VBS Mutual Bank.

Samwu’s call for action comes barely three days after the ANC leadership in North West recalled six mayors, four of whom invested municipal funds worth millions with VBS without following the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

The decision to fire them was taken by the ANC’s North West provincial task team on Tuesday in Potchefstroom. The ANC in the province said the decision was poised at restoring public confidence in the ANC, and to restore order, efficient, and effective service delivery in the province.

Mathabatha had said earlier that all investigations tasked by the provincial government on VBS would be ready by the end of November.

This week Mathabatha said all investigations had been completed and would be released for public consumption next week Tuesday.

Samwu, however, wasn’t buying it.

“The NEC of the ANC has recommended that its members in the province entangled into the VBS fiasco must step aside. That decision was articulated to the province ages ago. By now we expected Mathabatha and the ANC to have acted long time ago against those individuals so that our grandfathers, mothers, sisters and brothers who invested their hard-earned money into this bank can face the festive season and Christmas with ease,” said Aphane.

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