VBS Mutual Bank liquidator Anoosh Rooplal has informed the doomed financial institution’s depositors and creditors that the chance to claim a maximum of R100 000 at any Nedank branch has ended.
The affected parties include individuals, stokvels and burial societies.
”The opportunity which retail depositors had within which to have up to a maximum of R100 000 of their claims honoured at any Nedbank branch has now expired. The last day to claim such money was July 8,” Rooplal said in a notice to creditors dated July 13.
According to Rooplal, depositors who fall within the permitted categories of claimants that could claim funds from Nedbank but failed to do so can no longer make use of such a process.
”Your only option is to submit a claim against VBS as set out in the Insolvency Act,” he told depositors.
Rooplal also warned that all creditors who have not previously lodged their claims, including non-retail depositors, to file and prove claims against VBS and do so in strict compliance with the Insolvency Act.
”If you are unsure of the requirements of the Insolvency Act, you are urged to seek professional and/or legal assistance, which costs will be for your own account,” he stated.
He also notified depositors that communicating with him would be “a futile exercise” as he would attend or entertain only documents emailed, delivered or couriered to him on the matter.
In May, Rooplal also warned the municipalities, suppliers, retailers, businesses and permanent shareholders owed by the VBS that they were running out of time to lodge their valid claims.
He warned that there was no certainty that their claims would be accepted by the Master of the High Court or that any amount of their claims would eventually be made available.
“Please note that this is the final opportunity for all creditors of VBS Mutual Bank, who have not already lodged their claim, to come forward and lodge their claims against VBS,” he cautioned at the time, adding that valid claims to the Master of the High Court were part of the insolvency process that would give creditors an opportunity to be counted as the now defunct financial institution’s valid claimants.
In June, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane ordered the 14 municipalities that illegally and improperly invested almost R3.2 billion in VBS to institute proceedings to recover the public money.
The investments were made in violation of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Investment Regulations.
Mkhwebane has also ordered the municipalities to take action within three months against officials and councillors implicated in wrongdoing through forensic investigations.
The municipalities in Limpopo, North West and Gauteng invested amounts ranging from almost R1.1bn in the case of the Vhembe District Municipality to the R50 million spent by the Merafong Local Municipality.
Four of the 14 municipalities – Fetakgomo Tubatse, Madibeng, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati and the West Rand – snubbed Mkhwebane during her investigation of the matter by not responding when given the opportunity to answer to the evidence obtained during the probe.
Political Bureau