An investigation is underway into who was servicing the R70,000 monthly payments on former President Jacob Zuma’s loan with VBS Mutual Bank for 18 months.
The Sunday Times has established that Zuma only started making payments on the loan in March, when the troubled bank went into curatorship. As part of their wide-ranging investigation into the spectacular collapse of the Venda-based bank, the Hawks will also look into the loan the bank granted Zuma to settle the portion of his Nkandla homestead upgrades that were deemed to be security features.
“The payment profile changed in March (2018) to reflect Zuma as the person depositing the money. What we are unable to see is who was making payments before then,” said a source close to the investigation into the collapse of the mutual bank.
There is also suspicion that the former executives of VBS could have created fictitious deposit entries against Zuma’s loan account to make it seem as if it was being serviced monthly.
A special team — comprising Hawks investigators and senior prosecutors from the National Prosecuting Authority — has been tasked with looking into who serviced Zuma’s loan since September 2016, when it was granted.
Zuma’s spokesperson, Vukile Mathabela, did not respond to questions sent to him.
Read the full story in the Sunday Times.