The South African Communist Party (SACP) national chair, Blade Nzimande, has once again denied allegations that the party benefited financially from the VBS Mutual Bank looting saga.
His denial came after the former secretary of the SACP in Limpopo, Phatse Justice Pitso, wrote a letter calling on the SACP to make a public apology and pay back the R3m it allegedly received from VBS. The money was allegedly to settle a conference bill owed to the Birchwood Hotel in Kempton Park in 2017 through its then Gauteng chairperson, Jacob Mamabolo, as TimesLIVE previously reported.
Whether the [alleged] financial benefit was solicited through commission or omission is insignificant; the point is the SACP had naturally taken an obvious stance to condemn looting of VBS by way of public statements and expressed the desire of consequence to those implicated, Pitso's letter read.
Former VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi, in a witness statement, claimed the bank paid the R3m bill for the SACP.
Around July 2017, I received a call from Mamabolo seeking assistance with the settlement of the SACP's conference bill of R3m at Birchwood Hotel in Kempton Park. On July 6 2017, the said amount was paid directly to Birchwood Hotel from MML Food Services. There were no further requests received from the SACP regarding payments, Matodzi's statement read.
