VBS Shareholders Forum still want new banking licence

Minority shareholders and executive members have outlined their desire to see VBS Mutual Bank revived and funds recovered.

The VBS Shareholders Forum (VBS SF) held a briefing to provide an update to those who still cling to the hope of receiving their lost funds.

Four years ago, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) made more than R300 million available for limited withdrawals from retail depositors, but organisations are still empty handed.

VBS co-founder

VBS SF chairperson Madambi Muvhulawa, who co-founded VBS, retold the events of 2018 that saw the bank forced into curatorship by the SARB.

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In outlining the figures that make up the staggering levels of fraud, Muvhulawa was adamant that the bank was still solvent when the SARB stepped in.

He stated that the bank still had 10% of the deposited funds available, in line with how all fractional reserve banking institutions operate.

While stating they could have soldiered on, he blamed the loss of liquidity on the municipalities linked to VBS withdrawing their deposits en masse.  

List of VBS SF demands

Muvhulawa made it clear that the VBS SF is made up of representatives of minority shareholders, and not the majority shareholders or any large invested organisation.

“We are fighting for people who are very vulnerable. This not one man’s fight, this is a national fight,” he said.

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As well as being granted the relevant licence by the SARB, the forum outlined several key points they would like addressed.

Top of the list was bringing the perpetrators to justice and having all those who received proceeds of the fraud to pay the money back.  

If liquidators retrieve ill-gotten funds, VBS SF wants the money to be used to pay creditors and shareholders, and to kickstart the bank’s resuscitation.

‘Government to blame’

VBS SF feel the government moved too quickly in closing the bank. The forum’s secretary Robert Livhoyi said talks had been held with the SARB about having a licence approved.

Unfortunately, funds were not available for the relevant licence, hence the call to have liquidators allocate retrieved funds.

Answering a question from the gallery, the forum gave a blunt assessment about when money could be paid.

Tellingly, Muvhulawa said: “We can not guarantee to anybody that they will get [their] money.”