The now defunct VBS Mutual Bank’s former CEO Andile Ramavhunga and his wife Zanele’s assets can be seized after the high court dismissed their application to appeal against a final sequestration order on Wednesday.
The final order was obtained by the bank’s liquidator Anoosh Rooplal in August, but the Ramavhungas appealed it.
Ramavhunga is the final executive of five who have been sequestrated following the banking scandal. The applications to sequestrate the executives had their genesis in the large-scale fraud in which about R2bn was stolen from VBS, which is now being liquidated.
The story of how the bank was plundered has become known as the “Great Bank Heist” with everybody from the bank’s executives to its auditors, to municipal officials and politicians implicated.
Last week, the high court in Johannesburg dismissed an application for leave to appeal by Robert Madzonga, the bank’s former COO. Philip Truter, the former CFO; Phophi Londolani Mukhodobwane, the bank’s former GM of treasury; and Tshifhiwa Matodzi, the former chair, who were placed under final sequestration in 2018.
The bank’s shareholder, Vele Investments, was liquidated in 2018.
According to the forensic investigation done by advocate Terry Motau and Werksmans Attorneys on behalf of the Prudential Authority, Ramavhunga denied that he was in any way involved in any unlawful conduct. The report said Ramavhunga received vast sums of money from Vele’s banking accounts at VBS, which he contended were payments for consultancy services rendered.
Rooplal said the sequestration of the five executives is an important part of the liquidation process, and that he will continue with the process to recover money stolen from the bank. This includes pursuing borrowers who have defaulted on their loan repayment obligations.
Former president Jacob Zuma is the most prominent of the bank’s borrowers, after it loaned him the money to pay back the funds used for non-security upgrades at his Nkandla homestead.
Business Day reported in September that Zuma has been in default on the multi-million-rand loan he received from the bank and stands to lose the property as he faces court action brought by Rooplal.
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