FNB says it did not freeze Jacob Zuma’s account of its own accord, but merely followed a court order obtained by the liquidators of defunct VBS Mutual Bank, who are trying to recoup money owed to it by the former head of state.
“FNB was instructed by the high court to place a hold on outgoing payments from former president Zuma’s FNB accounts. The accounts are not closed as incoming payments are unaffected,” FNB said in a statement.
“This instruction from the court results from the process currently being managed by the VBS Bank liquidators, and FNB was legally required to comply. Zuma’s recourse now lies with the courts and VBS liquidators.”
The liquidators of VBS have been on the hunt over the past three years for people who owe the lender money.
In 2016, Zuma got a R7.8m loan with VBS to pay towards nonsecurity upgrades to his home at Nkandla, as per the directive of the public protector’s report on the upgrades.
Terry Motau’s 148-page report — “VBS Mutual Bank: The Great Bank Heist”, released in October 2018 — blew the lid off the looting of the bank, from which nearly R2bn was siphoned in less than five years.
The VBS liquidators recently settled with professional services firm KPMG over its shoddy auditing of the bank’s books — in a settlement said to be R500m.
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