Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president Floyd Shivambu is set to take Parliament’s Ethics Committee to court in an attempt to overturn its decision to dock his pay. The committee found that Shivambu failed to disclose three payments he received from the defunct VBS Mutual Bank, resulting in a deduction of nine days’ salary.
The Ethics Committee’s ruling comes after the Democratic Alliance lodged complaints in 2019 against Julius Malema and Shivambu, alleging that they had breached the code of ethical conduct by not disclosing their financial ties to the bank. However, the committee concluded that there was no evidence of VBS funds being deposited into Malema’s personal bank account.
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The EFF, in response to the committee’s decision, stated that they took note of the sanctions imposed on Shivambu. The party pointed out that the funds in question were not donations from VBS, but rather loan amounts from a private company called Sgameka Pty Ltd.
The EFF criticized the committee’s conclusion that the loan amounts were donations, stating that Sgameka had provided a sworn affidavit confirming that they were loans unrelated to VBS. The party described the committee’s conclusion as false and vowed to challenge it in court.
The payments made to Shivambu were revealed by Parliament’s acting Registrar of Members’ Interests, advocate Anthea Gordon. The payments, totaling R180,000, were made by Sgameka Projects Pty Ltd, which is owned by Shivambu’s brother, Brian. The three payments were made in August 2017, with amounts of R100,000, R30,000, and R50,000.
Gordon stated that Shivambu’s failure to disclose these payments breached the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interests. The committee found that Shivambu had not complied with the provisions for disclosing financial interests.
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