Following a meeting between the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (Hawks) and lobby group AfriForum, the organisation is seeking confirmation of whether charges of racketeering, money laundering and corruption, against Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and his former deputy Floyd Shivambu form part of the VBS Bank case, as claimed by the Hawks’ investigating officer.

AfriForum said the Hawks confirmed that the investigation into VBS Bank had been completed and that the suspects would be prosecuted soon.

Last year, former VBS board chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi revealed that the EFF received monthly donations and a so-called business loan of millions of rands from VBS, since 2017, through a front company, Sgameka Projects.

In July last year, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel filed an affidavit urging the police to investigate Malema and Shivambu for racketeering and fraud, and other charges.

Kriel set out in detail how the alleged planned and repeated fraud, corruption and money laundering offences supposedly committed by Malema and Shivambu met the requirements for criminal offences as defined in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).

However, at AfriForum’s meeting with the Hawks, it said Kriel’s docket had been closed as his complaint was a duplicate of what had already been investigated as part of a complaint filed in 2019. 

“Kriel’s affidavit referred to revelations made by Tshifhiwa Matodzi, former chair of VBS Mutual Bank, in his witness statement presumably submitted as part of a plea agreement. This alleged criminal conduct should no longer be considered in isolation from the so-called ‘VBS scandal’ suspects, but should also include the suspicious, and in my opinion unexplored, accusations that point to the EFF political party as an enterprise, as defined in Poca,” said AfriForum Private Prosecution Unit head Gerrie Nel.

Kriel believes that the documented information constitutes enough reasonable suspicion of the establishment of an EFF enterprise as determined by Poca and a history of planned, ongoing and repeated participation or involvement in criminal conduct by these individuals.

“…this requires diligent and steadfast intervention by the authorities in a manner where they live up to the expectation that they will conduct their constitutional obligations without fear, favour or prejudice,” Kriel said.

In a letter to the Hawks’ Anti-Corruption Investigation Section Commander, Nel said the investigation included allegations and resulted in an investigation of Malema, Shivambu, and the EFF as a criminal enterprise beyond the scope of the VBS allegations.

While the Hawks indicated they would retain Kriel’s affidavit in the correspondence section of the docket, Nel suggested that the dockets be merged, and that Kriel’s affidavit be filed as a complaint as part of the evidence section.

“We must also record our discontent with your decision to file our client’s complaint as a duplication and contend that is an oversight. We emphasise that Mr Kriel’s criminal complaint extends itself to criminal activities of a broader nature than those restricted to the VBS matter,” Nel had said to the Hawks.