The situation in which the VBS Mutual Bank finds itself is the result not of malicious persecution of "a black bank" by a regulatory institution hellbent on protecting the establishment, but rather due to the greed and mismanagement of the small bank’s leadership. On Sunday, the Reserve Bank placed VBS under curatorship — the first time they’ve taken such a drastic step since African Bank was placed under curatorship in 2014. Banking registrar Kuben Naidoo explained that the problem was that 18 months ago the bank began taking hefty deposits from municipalities, which it then lent out to borrowers. "When the municipalities came asking for that money, the bank wasn’t able to pay," he said. In February, when one of the municipalities wanted the money back, VBS couldn’t repay the funds. Of course, that’s not how Tshifhiwa Matodzi, who resigned as VBS chairman this week, saw it. Last week, he wrote a letter to Naidoo, saying that it was only after a black board took over in 2012 that th...
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