Four were arrested, three were expected to hand themselves over, while an eighth suspect is in quarantine due to Covid-19
National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi at a media briefing on progress of high profile priority cases in Pretoria, June 17 2020. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA
Hawks head Lt Gen Godfrey Lebeya announced that four suspects were arrested during operations on 10 premises in Gauteng and Limpopo on Wednesday morning. Another three were expected to hand themselves over by the end of the day. An eighth suspect was in Covid-19 quarantine. The authorities would not name them before their court appearances on Thursday. A report on the scandal by advocate Terry Motau detailed a criminal enterprise perpetrated at the behest of executives and benefiting politicians who illegally deposited money with the bank in return for backhanders. It detailed how one mayor allegedly pleaded for"Christmas" — slang for a monetary gift — for herself and the speaker of her municipality.
Formed in 1982 as a wholly black-owned bank in the former Venda homeland, VBS burst onto the national scene in 2016 when it emerged that it had lent former president Jacob Zuma more than R7m to pay back state funds used to upgrade his Nkandla home. He eventually defaulted on the loan, and the bank’s liquidators issued summons in 2019 for him to pay back more than R7.3m.
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