Mboweni dismisses Sexwale's claim of a looted heritage fund

19 April 2021 - 16:46
By andisiwe makinana AND Andisiwe Makinana
Tito Mboweni says he will reach out to Tokyo Sexwale. File photo.
Image: ESA ALEXANDER Tito Mboweni says he will reach out to Tokyo Sexwale. File photo.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni has rejected claims by businessman and ANC veteran Tokyo Sexwale that money from a heritage fund meant for the poor has been stolen.

Mboweni took to Twitter on Monday suggesting that Sexwale may have been a victim of a scam. It remains unclear whether such a fund exists and who is behind it.

Mr Tokyo Sexwale’s statement about stolen money is untrue, sad and [it] seems that he was a victim of the many scams around. You cannot steal transmitted money from the central bank. How? His statement on television was unfortunate. Will reach out to him,” he said.

Sexwale told eNCA on Sunday that he had been involved in raising billions of rand, with another unnamed trustee, and said a powerful family had contributed these funds to pay off university debt and provide free higher education for poor students.

“I'm part of two people who are in charge of the heritage fund that belongs to a very powerful family out there in the world. This fund is here in SA already, it comes through the SA Reserve Bank,” said Sexwale.

“I'm part of the two people who are mandate holders.”

He said former president Jacob Zuma and president Cyril Ramaphosa knew about the fund from 2016 and “that's why comrade Zuma spoke about free education, not government money”.

The money would also be used to top up the social relief of distress grant and to save certain state-owned enterprises and for bullet trains that Ramaphosa spoke about in his June 2019 state of the nation address.

Sexwale said when making sure this money was brought into the [SA] economy, they encountered some resistance and when they investigated the resistance, they found that some of the money had been stolen.

He said the theft was being investigated by the police.

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