Public protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane has met with Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha to express concern that council speakers in eight Limpopo municipalities that lost millions in the VBS scandal are dragging their feet in acting against officials implicated in the saga.
Mkhwebane also met Limpopo legislature speaker Rosemary Molapo, members of the executive council (MECs), and senior government officials at the legislature in Lebowakgomo on Wednesday, to discuss the lack of action against those who diverted funds meant for service delivery and unlawfully invested them with VBS.
In June 2021, Mkhwebane directed council speakers of Makhado, Vhembe, Collins Chabane, Elias Motsoaledi, Greater Giyani, Ephraim Mogale, Tubatse Fetakgomo and Lepelle-Nkumpi municipalities to ensure that any outstanding recommendations made in advocate Terry Motau’s (SC) September 2018 forensic report were implemented.
In his explosive report titled The Great Bank Heist, Motau concluded that the perpetrators of the VBS looting made away with almost R2-billion.
“Municipal managers were to have submitted implementation plans to us within 60 days from the date of this report, 28 June 2021, indicating how the remedial action was to be implemented. Sadly, we have not heard from the affected municipalities,” Mkhwebane said.
She added that without a court order setting aside the report, the remedial action was to have been complied with within the prescribed period to avoid contempt of the public protector.
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