The news that broke out on Monday of parliament finding against one of its own, one Floyd Shivambu, for benefiting out of the VBS fiasco would have done nothing other than open old wounds just as they were healing and sounded more like the mocking of the victims.
Worse still, he is to be docked a measly nine days’ pay for his sin. Shivambu received three payments totaling R180,000 from his brother Brian Shivambu’s company Sgameka Projects which in turn had received payments from VBS. Brian and Sgameka were listed among 52 individuals, including members of the governing party, and companies who looted VBS.
The EFF was quick to come to the defence of Shivambu, who has duly launched a court challenge on the findings of the committee, as is his right. He has insisted that the Sgameka payments were loans, which as an MP he wasn’t obliged to declare as a benefit.
But the party has in the past denied that its leaders had received VBS monies. The jury is still very much out on Shivambu’s arguments but it would be interesting to see how he is going to prove how he had been repaying the ‘loan’ or indeed to provide proof of the loan agreement.
What is of greater concern, though, is that his winning the case would be proof of just how low the bar is set for the political elites in parliament. Is that not a loophole to plug as soon as yesterday?
SOWETAN | Bar set too low for MPs getting 'loans'
Image: Gallo Images/Fani Mahuntsi
Mention VBS and images of elderly folks queueing in the scorching heat outside a branch in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, come to mind. They were hoping to salvage something of their savings after news of the looting of the mutual bank broke.
It was heart-wrenching scenes that would soften even the cruelest of souls. In the end the criminal looting of VBS led to the arrest of a few looters, among them top management, but sadly as it has become the norm, politicians who also typically joined the looting frenzy somehow escaped the closing net for their part in the sorry saga.
In the meantime, the gogos who had hoped to make something of their meagre earnings by saving, walked away with less than they had put in. Processes to track the loot have been instigated but as is the nature of such business, the wheels are grinding extremely slow to render any meaningful recourse for those who spend days on end in the queues hoping against hope.
Shivambu’s salary reduction for VBS involvement ‘a slap on the wrist’
The news that broke out on Monday of parliament finding against one of its own, one Floyd Shivambu, for benefiting out of the VBS fiasco would have done nothing other than open old wounds just as they were healing and sounded more like the mocking of the victims.
Worse still, he is to be docked a measly nine days’ pay for his sin. Shivambu received three payments totaling R180,000 from his brother Brian Shivambu’s company Sgameka Projects which in turn had received payments from VBS. Brian and Sgameka were listed among 52 individuals, including members of the governing party, and companies who looted VBS.
The EFF was quick to come to the defence of Shivambu, who has duly launched a court challenge on the findings of the committee, as is his right. He has insisted that the Sgameka payments were loans, which as an MP he wasn’t obliged to declare as a benefit.
But the party has in the past denied that its leaders had received VBS monies. The jury is still very much out on Shivambu’s arguments but it would be interesting to see how he is going to prove how he had been repaying the ‘loan’ or indeed to provide proof of the loan agreement.
What is of greater concern, though, is that his winning the case would be proof of just how low the bar is set for the political elites in parliament. Is that not a loophole to plug as soon as yesterday?
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