Pretoria - More than 150 villagers in Ga-Mathabatha outside Lebowakgomo in Limpopo are counting their losses after their village bank collapsed and with it millions of rand of their investments.
Local small business co-operatives, burial societies, stokvels and individuals who had invested money in the village bank collectively lost more than R4 million in the now defunct Mathabatha Village Bank.
The funds that vanished had been invested with the Ga-Mathabatha Financial Co-operative, which operated the bank. The facility closed its doors after filing for bankruptcy.
The small financial institution was established in 2001 by a group of villagers, who wanted to save money for a better financial future, but were tired of travelling about 50km to Lebowakgomo or 100km to Polokwane to do their bank-
ing because their village didn’t have a reliable bank.
After investors deposited their money with the co-operative, the institution would entrust the funds with a mainstream financial institution.
However, in 2017 the board of the village bank, comprising of nine of the more educated community members including teachers and nurses, summoned the investors to a meeting to announce that the bank was cash strapped and broke.
This is according to one of the investors, Julia Magofe, who had invested thousands of her own money into the co-operative.
Although Magofe could not divulge exactly how much she had saved up, speaking to the Pretoria News on Sunday, the tearful elderly woman said the victims had got together to open a case of theft with the police a year and a
half ago, but still didn’t have any answers.
“This has to be the most difficult time of our lives. After trying everything after losing that money four years ago, we decided to finally open a case, but we still don’t know if we will ever get back that money, because there is not even a trail of who might have stolen it.”
The bank serviced remote and rural areas including Ga-Mathabatha, Mafefe and Modutlulo, where most of the people who had saved up their money with the bank lived under the poverty line before investing with the bank.
Magofe said some of the attempts they have made were to reach out to the media to get help, which has not had an impact. “People want their money back and we are not going to give up until we find who took our money. We have even tried the Hawks and our local councillor and they said they were also investigating,” Magofe said.
Another victim is Maphankane Ma-
kgaretsa, who lost over R24 000 that he had saved up for his last born’s education. “I realised that when my last born passes matric I’d be on pension and unable to take him to school. Now all that money is missing and I have no clue where to start looking for it,” Makgaretsa said.
Stokvels formed by local women for groceries are now also out of pocket.
Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said the group opened a case in February last year.
“A case was opened by the victims who were reportedly depositing monies into this Ga-Mathabatha Financial Co-operative after realising that the said bank had collapsed and that the money could not be traced.
The police have been investigating the case since then. On conclusion of the investigations, the docket will be referred to the senior public prosecutor for decision. No arrests have been made yet.
“Individuals, stokvels, and other groupings allegedly deposited their money into this bank which was reportedly established almost 15 years ago. The cumulative amount of money involved is said to be over R4m.”
Local ward councillor Tlouyatiba Mathabatha said the community had approached him for help and he had since been trying to get to the bottom of it.
“We have been to the National Treasury in an attempt to get help, but to no avail. We met with the Treasury in Pretoria and they said they could not afford to give back the money to the investors,” he said.
The incident comes against the backdrop of a scandal involving bank executives, municipal officials and politicians, who are accused of looting the VBS Mutual Bank of about R2.3 billion, the money of mostly poor people from Vhembe in Limpopo.
Attempts by the Pretoria News to locate the people who ran the bank came to nil.
Pretoria News