Blade Nzimande denies VBS Mutual Bank paid SACP’s R3m hotel bill

The 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 chair, Jacob Mamabolo, as 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.

In a “witness statement”, former VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi said 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.

Nzimande, however, dismissed the allegations.

He said the party did not receive any money from VBS and that the money received was a donation from a food company.

“The SACP did not take any money from VBS. It was a food company that donated to our congress. We have actually said that the money did not come from VBS, even the person who actually donated it said so.

“We are not going back on the statement of our central committee at that time which explained clearly that there was no such. The SACP took no money from VBS, the SACP stole no money from VBS. The money was donated by a legitimate company that we raised money from, and they themselves said they are not a front for VBS,” Nzimande said in a Newzroom Afrika interview.

Nzimande’s frustration was evident when questioned about the allegations, reiterating that the party had already addressed these claims. He further urged the media to refer to the party’s previous statement and not “recycle stories”.

“Even now we are being asked, the story is being run again. Can we please urge the media to do justice and fairness to viewers by going back and doing background research instead of recycling stories that have no credibility whatsoever?” he asked.

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