Former National Treasury general director Dondo Mogajane has resigned as the chairperson of the Government Employees Pension Funds.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced Mogajane’s departure, which comes amid allegations of the defunct VBS Mutual Bank bribery scandal, in a brief media statement. Mogajane has denied accepting the alleged bribe.
“The Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, acknowledges the decision by Mr Dondo Mogajane, a trustee and chairperson of the Board at the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), to step down from the position.
“Minister Godongwana extends his gratitude to Mr Mogajane for his service and conveys his best wishes for success in his future endeavours,” said Godongwana.
Mogajane, is accused of pocketing a R1-million bribe from the VBS bank.
Mogajane allegedly received the funds to keep municipal investments in VBS against the Municipal Finance Management Act, which states that municipalities cannot invest in mutual banks.
15-year prison sentence
These allegations are contained in an explosive affidavit by Tshifiwa Matodzi, the former VBS chairperson and mastermind of the bank’s collapse.
Matodzi was in July sentenced to 495 years of direct imprisonment after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
He will ultimately serve an effective 15-year prison sentence after the court said that most of the sentences would run concurrently. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
According to the affidavit, Matodzi met Mogajane through Raliom Razwinane, who served as an agent for VBS to find investment deposits.
Mogajane’s contract as director-general at the Treasury came to an end on June 7, 2022, after electing not to extend it.
He had worked at the Treasury for 23 years, five of which had been as the director-general.
Questioning the investments
Matodzi claimed that Razwininane brought his powerful contact, Mogajane, on board when the Treasury began questioning municipalities about their investments in VBS and ordering that these be withdrawn.
Matodzi said he met the then-director general five times.
The first meeting was at Pedro-Portia Cigar Lounge at Cedar Square in Fourways; the second was at VBS offices in Rivonia; and the third meeting was held at Eagle Canyon on October 8, 2017.
The last two meetings, according to the affidavit, were at Treasury and the Reserve Bank. It was at the first meeting that the R1-million bribe was discussed.
“While the discussion was still on this National Treasury letter to the municipalities, Raliom then softly whispered to me regarding our earlier agreement that I should pay an amount of R1-million to Dondo [Mogajane].
“That is when Raliom shared a whisper with Dondo, and then Dondo said a million rand is fine, nodding his head.
“In short, the purpose of this meeting was none other than to confirm the payment of R1-million and the bank account where it was to be made,” said Matodzi.
Money paid into Standard Bank account
He added that when he inquired on where the money would be paid, a woman he identified as Dr Mkhize, who was also part of the meeting, handed over a piece of paper that had a Standard Bank account number that belonged to Baphile Foundation BPC.
This is where the money was allegedly paid. The foundation allegedly belonged to Mkhize.
“The payment was intended for Dondo to intervene and facilitate the withdrawal of the National Treasury letter and to grant VBS the special dispensation of 18 months for it to continue to accept the municipal investments.
“At the time, VBS had already started the process to convert into a commercial bank, and in VBS’s view, 18 months would have been sufficient for the process to be expedited,” said Matodzi in the affidavit.
Mogajane, in a media statement released on Friday, insists that he was part of the government team that ensured that VBS Bank was outed for its corruption and looting as they filed all relevant documents with the rightful authorities.
“I categorically deny that I have ever received corrupt monies or bribes,” said Mogajane.
He explained that it was around 2017 and 2018 when they learnt that VBS was a scam. This was after several engagements with the bank.
