Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) leader Julius Malema says the party has scrutinized his Deputy Floyd Shivambu’s bank statement and no money from VBS Mutual Bank or Sgameka was located.
Malema briefed the media at the party’s headquarters in Braamfontein in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The party has dismissed claims that it received money from VBS, while at the same time says it has no reason to doubt Shivambu. He has distanced himself from his brother who has been implicated in the Reserve Bank forensic report.
The report says Brian Shivambu received R16 million, R10 million of which is suspected to have been funnelled to his brother’s account through a company called Sgameka projects.
Malema says if Floyd Shivambu is found to have been implicated in the looting VBS bank he will be dealt with accordingly.
“He [Floyd] brought his financial statements and we looked at them. We went through them; we cannot locate any money from the VBS. We cannot locate any money from Sgameka. There are exchanges of money from him to Brian, from Brian to him, and not only from Brian to him, to his brother Lucky, to his parents,” says Malema.
“Media bias reporting”
Malema has criticized the media of bias in reporting about the scandal, by portraying Brian Shivambu as the face of the VBS corruption but not showing ANC members in the municipalities who are implicated.
“You leave all the public representatives you go after one young man who holds no office at all. You want to create an impression that our deputy president is in the Motau report. You make mistakes deliberately; you know why? it’s because you know you will say sorry after tarnishing images of people. The only thing you can do is sorry and then that must be enough.”
