LUCAS LEDWABA
THE ANC has come under more fire from within its ranks in Limpopo as the fallout over the handling of the VBS Mutual Bank scandal unfolds.
On Wednesday, the VBS Shareholders Forum and ANC-aligned organisations, including churches, community organisations, traditional leaders and healers, civic, unions and political formations and the party’s provincial veterans’ league, made public a scathing letter sent to the party’s Secretary General, Ace Magashule.
The organisations are organised under the Justice for Musetsho-Mani Campaign, after two South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) Tshililo Musetsho and Ronald Mani “were brutally assassinated when they fearlessly campaigned against the looting of the Vhembe District Municipality funds through the VBS Bank.”
In the letter, the organisations criticised the party’s national executive committee (NEC) for its decision to reinstate two of its provincial leaders, Florence Radzilani and Danny Msiza, who are both implicated in the VBS looting.
The organisations also levelled harsh criticism on the party’s leadership and expressed fears that “it will be an impossible task for the ANC and its alliance to campaign within our constituencies [for next year’s local government election].”
“This is because our people will demand answers on this issue since the arguments advanced so far are condescending, offensive and irrational,” the letter reads in part.
The party was also blasted for failing to explain and account to its constituencies on the loss of over R500million of public funds meant for service delivery which as deposited in the VBS mutual bank against Public Finance Management Performance act regulations.
“Our villages have no basic infrastructures for water and sanitation due to lack of funds after municipality investments were looted during the VBS corruption.”
Two weeks ago, Auditor-General advocate Kimi Makwetu announced in his audit report on local government that municipalities that invested and lost over R1.2 billion of tax-payers money in the VBS bank were crippled by massive service delivery challenges.
The letter paints a damning picture of the devastation caused by the looting and eventual collapse of the bank and blames the ANC leadership of failing to assist the VBS victims and instead, “shifting much focus and attention to the political survival of its leaders who are facing allegations of corruption.”
“Whilst our anti-corruption activists live in fear, the ANC insists on a decision which bolsters the confidence of those implicated in corruption as their alleged masters are reinstated by hook or crook. Widespread fear and anxiety reign throughout our communities because of the infamous decision of the ANC.”
It is feared that the fallout could lead to the ANC losing support in the Vhembe region, where the party received an overwhelming 86% of votes during the general election.
The Vhembe region has become the ANC’s Achilles heel in recent years following its indecisive handling of two demarcation battles in Malamulele and Vuwani.
The Campaign said the decision to reinstate Msiza and Radzilani “is already hammering the integrity of the ANC as a leader of society” and deepening factions within the party’s provincial structures.
Meanwhile, the SA National Civics Organisation has joined dissenting voices against the ANC’s decision.
SANCO Limpopo spokesman Sipho Dikgale said the organisation is “appalled by the ANC’s deafening silence on the ongoing service delivery debacle in the municipalities that invested in the VBS Mutual Bank.”
Dikgale said the organisation “further note with disgust the decision by the ANC to allow the mayors implicated to quietly resign as mayors, but still retained their positions as councillors.”
Dikgale said former mayor of Vhembe district municipality Florence Radzilane who is currently a member of the provincial legislature “has received a kick-back of more than R300 000 for exposing R311 millions of public purse to the bank.”
He also fingered Kekana Nakedi, who was the mayor of Lepelle Nkumpi local municipality and currently a member of the provincial legislature, for leading the municipality’s moves to invest R151 million meant for service delivery in the defunct bank.
“The Auditor General has revealed that eight municipalities in Limpopo have invested hundreds of millions into the VBS mutual bank are now technically insolvent and some have postponed service delivery projects because they are broke. This is very shocking and a huge insult to the people on the province as they are drowning in poverty while these councillors feed themselves with tax-payers money,” said Dikgale.
“It is clear that the ANC prioritize the social safety of these criminals, instead of community service delivery. These captains of corruption have deprived our own people, self-reliance, the same people whom they claim to defend through the Freedom Charter, and the same people who voted the ANC into power,” Dikgale said.
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)