Free State Destea MEC, Makalo Mohale reveals to OFM News this week, that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, in fact approached the department for information on the FDC’s deal with the bank, prior to the search and seizure raid conducted on 5 July 2019, implying the state-owned entity and the department have always complied with requests for information from law enforcement on the matter.

He says now that the situation has gone the way it has, all they can do is allow law enforcement agencies to do their job. “Now that the matter is with law enforcement agencies, I believe it’s only befitting that we allow them to do their job without necessarily any opinions or remarks”. With that statement, the MEC concluded his comments on the raid and allegations of impropriety associated with the loan.

The FDC came in the spotlight in 2018 following the release of Jerry Motau’s ‘Great Bank Heist’ report on the liquidated VBS. Motau alleged the FDC, along with 52 other entities and individuals, received “gratuitous payments” from the bank. The FDC vehemently denied that the more than R104 million was “gratuitous”, stressing that it was an investment instead. 

The chairperson of the entity’s board, Hantsi Matseke, said at the time that the entity had loaned the bank R100 million in June 2017. The bank repaid its loan in four tranches, the last of which was R54 million.

Having had insisted there was ample evidence of the transaction in their financials, it was reported there was in actual fact very little trace of the exchange apart from an entry which indicated the entity was seeking about R9,5 million from the Bank, which was not accessible due to the Limpopo-based bank being placed under curatorship.  

National Hawks spokesperson, Hangwani Mulaudzi, revealed previously that they managed to seize documents and computer files pertinent to their investigation on the deal. Mulaudzi also said arrests in the matter were imminent.

OFM News