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After a week of numerous meetings, including sit-downs with the ANC's top six, and hearing from party officials who have been implicated in the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank, the Limpopo ANC's provincial executive committee (PEC) has finally made its position public.
The names of party's provincial deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani and treasurer Danny Msiza were among the 53 mentioned in a damning report by advocate Terry Motau and law firm Werksmans Attorneys on the looting of R1.8b from VBS released last week.
In the report, Msiza is painted as a political influencer and fixer who got municipalities to invest in the mutual bank.
READ: ANC Limpopo to hold emergency meeting over VBS
On Monday the ANC's top officials met with Limpopo's top five over the matter. The following day a PEC meeting was held in the evening.
Its secretary Soviet Lekganyane released a statement calling for "corrective measures", which he did not specify, to be taken in all municipalities that invested money into the bank.
He said the ANC leadership in Limpopo was "irritated" that the province had lost R1bn in the scandal, blaming it on "incompetence and dereliction of duty" by the province's councils and officials.
"Municipal councils must strengthen political management teams to ensure effective political oversight," said Lekganyane.
Lekganyane said the matter was also referred to treasury and the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs in the province for them to implement the corrective measures.
The PEC, which has rallied behind its officials, acknowledged that criminal activities took place at the collapsed bank, with Vhembe municipality hardest hit as it invested the most into VBS.
The committee also said it would await a decision by integrity commission of the ANC and would implement its recommendations, this after the matter was sent to the structure by the party at national level.
The ANC in Limpopo also committed to working with relevant parties to assist in rebuilding the collapsed bank.
"VBS is the only black-owned institution in our province in possession of both the banking and insurance licences, and [since] it carries the potential to play a critical role in broad-based black economic empowerment, the PEC resolved to work with all relevant stakeholders in fighting for the resuscitation of the bank," Lekganyane said in the statement.
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