Ex-Treasury DG Mogajane and the alleged VBS bribe — ties to non-profit directors revealed

AmaBhungane can reveal that former National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane is a family friend of the Mkhize sisters, whose non-profit company was paid R1-million by VBS Mutual Bank. This money was allegedly destined for Mogajane as a bribe to stall the corrupt bank’s demise.

This adds circumstantial support to the allegations contained in an affidavit by former VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi signed as part of a plea deal with the National Prosecuting Authority and made public last month.

Matodzi, identified as the “kingpin” behind the VBS theft, told authorities that in August 2017 Mogajane attended a meeting at a cigar bar in Fourways, Gauteng, where he agreed to receive R1-million. 

In exchange, Mogajane was expected to retract a letter from the Treasury that had instructed municipalities to withdraw their deposits from VBS and to stop making further deposits.

The letter was an effective death sentence for VBS, which relied overwhelmingly on illegal municipal deposits secured through “commission agents”.

According to Matodzi, Mogajane was accompanied at the meeting by Dr Zinzi Mkhize-Vabaza. Matodzi claimed it was agreed that the money would be paid into a Standard Bank account belonging to the Baphilile Foundation, a non-profit company founded by Mkhize-Vabaza and her sister Londiwe Maluleke.

In his affidavit, Matodzi attached proof of the payment he had made to Baphilile via his company, Vele Investment. 

Mogajane strongly denies receiving a bribe, but has not answered key details of the allegation, citing constraints due to his cooperation with a Hawks investigation.

Now, new information suggests that Mogajane shares a close relationship with the two siblings whose non-profit was allegedly used to disguise the intended beneficiary.

Amabhungane has seen social media images which show that Mogajane is friends with Mkhize-Vabaza and Maluleke. 

The pictures taken from Mkhize-Vabaza and Maluleke’s Instagram pages confirm that there is a relationship between Mogajane and the controllers of the foundation allegedly used to facilitate the payment of R1-million to influence the former director-general. 

Interestingly, Londiwe Maluleke is married to Joseph Maluleke, the attorney who previously represented Matodzi, although this was not the case in 2017 when the payment occurred.

One source told us that Mogajane and the Mkhize family were very close and had been for years: “Dondo has also now become very close to Joseph Maluleke, who is now Londiwe’s hubby.” 

Neither Mogajane, the Mkhize sisters nor Joseph Maluleke were prepared to answer questions about their relationship.

Joseph Maluleke has also represented Limpopo ANC treasurer Danny Msiza, who has been accused of facilitating many of the illegal municipal deposits into VBS and currently represents Kabelo Matsepe — the middleman between Msiza and VBS. 

Londiwe Maluleke’s social media activity suggests that she married Joseph Maluleke in 2023.

Joseph Maluleke was involved in VBS affairs at least as far back as 2017, when he failed to facilitate a potential deal between VBS and controversial Angolan banker Álvaro Sobrinho whereby VBS would create a new trade finance arm. The collapse of the deal resulted in a loss of R144-million for Sobrinho.

Joseph Maluleke was also present at a desperate last-ditch meeting, held by VBS management the day before the bank went into curatorship in March 2018, to devise a plan to save the bank and, by extension, themselves.

Baphilile’s bank account

Company records show that Baphilile, the non-profit that received money allegedly meant for Mogajane, has three directors. 

As reflected in our previous article, the non-profit’s third director, Phemelo Tshoeu, told amaBhungane that she did not know about the company or the fact that she was listed as one of its directors. 

Initially, Tshoeu, who is also a medical doctor, implied that her friend Mkhize-Vabaza, whom she met at university, may have “falsely” listed her as a director. 

However, shortly after the story was published, Tshoeu backtracked and said she remembered that in 2016 she had agreed to be part of the foundation after Mkhize-Vabaza approached her with the proposal. 

Tshoeu explained that she did not immediately remember this because she had never been involved in the organisation’s operations and was not aware that it was even financially active. 

Tshoeu shared emails between her and the two sisters which reveal that by January 2017, Standard Bank “automatically closed” the foundation’s bank account — opened in 2016 — “because it was not active”. 

In the email, Mkhize-Vabaza asked Tshoeu and Londiwe Maluleke to send her a series of documents so that she could open a new account. 

A few days later, Mkhize-Vabaza sent another email. This time she needed Tshoeu to sign an urgent resolution making her and her sister the authorised signatories of Baphilile’s bank account.

In the dark 

The resolution meant that the Mkhize sisters had full control of Baphilile’s bank account. According to Tshoeu, that was the last time she spoke to them about the foundation. She claims that the three of them had never held any board meetings and that she was not apprised of Baphilile’s activities.

Although Mkhize-Vabaza previously told us that Baphilile was a real non-profit company doing work in the field of women’s health, Tshoeu states that she was totally in the dark about this.

She shared an email that she wrote to Mkhize-Vabaza after the publication of amaBhungane’s first article, in which she stated, “The last communication we had about the Baphilile Foundation was on the 10th January 2017 when I received the resolution letter to authorize yourself and Londiwe Mavundla [as she then was] to be signatories of the organisation…

“I had no involvement in any outsourcing of the donations to Baphilile Foundation and I was under the impression that the Foundation was not active as we have had no discussion nor a single meeting regarding its activities, despite us meeting several times over the years as friends and for social gatherings.”

Responses

AmaBhungane sent detailed questions to email addresses belonging to Mkhize-Vabaza and Londiwe and Joseph Maluleke. 

Mkhize-Vabaza said: “This is a legal matter now and I’ve been advised by my legal team not to respond to anyone.” 

The Malulekes did not respond to questions. 

In response to our questions about his relationship with the Mkhize sisters, Mogajane referred us to a letter his attorney sent us when we first wrote about Matodzi’s allegations. 

The letter states that Mogajane stands by his public statement denying Matodzi’s allegations and that he cannot answer specific questions because he is “cooperating with the Hawks in their investigations into matters linked to VBS and would not want to prejudice such investigations”.

Follow-up questions requesting his attorney to identify the Hawks officers involved or the case number attached to their investigation went unanswered. DM