VBS shuts its doors due to Covid-19

File picture: Supplied

File picture: Supplied

Published Apr 3, 2020

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Cape Town - The ill-fated VBS Mutual Bank has shut operations at its Thohoyandou branch and its Rivonia, Johannesburg, corporate office due to the 21-day national lockdown to try and contain the spread of Covid-19.

In a message to VBS clients, the bank’s liquidators said they have decided to close both the branch and corporate office to ensure safety and in compliance with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of a national lockdown between March 27 and April 16.

The liquidators have also urged all VBS’s clients to continue servicing their loan obligations and for those with credit life and homeowners insurance claims, repayments and other enquiries to contact the bank via e-mail.

In 2018, Advocate Terry Motau found that nearly R2 billion was looted from the bank by its executives, politicians and their cronies in what is described as a “heist.”

The curator of Bophelo Benefit Services (BBS) and its administrator, Bophelo Beneficiary Fund (BBF), Juanito Damons, managed to prove a claim of R385 million at the first meeting of VBS creditors in November last year.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority, formerly the Financial Services Board, placed the BBS and its administrator under curatorship in 2017 after it emerged that about R255m was missing from BBF, which held the funds on behalf Anglo Platinum mineworkers’ orphans.

Political Bureau

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