The head of the Land Bank’s treasury, Makgale Gwangwa, has not been suspended from duty, the bank reiterated in a quarter-page advertisement published in Business Day on Monday.
In the advertisement, which was headed ”Media Statement” and dated November 16, the Land Bank said it had become important to ”set the record straight” amid ongoing media speculation about the situation at the bank and ”factual inaccuracies being reported on a continuous basis”.
Last week, the Agriculture and Land Affairs Ministry denied firing five Land Bank officials for irresponsible lending to their friends and misappropriating R2-billion of its funds.
The Ministry said a forensic audit had found some transactions approved by Land Bank management, but not its board, amounting to just over R900-million, and that there was a reasonable belief the transactions included some level of misappropriation of funds.
Acknowledging that the Ministry had tried to correct ”some of the factual inconsistencies as reported”, the Land Bank said in its advertisement that some ”continue to persist”.
”Among them is the reported suspension of … Gwangwa …” said Land Bank corporate development general manager Herman Moeketsi.
”The Bank would like to state categorically that Mr Gwangwa has neither been implicated in the forensic audit …, nor has he been suspended from duty.”
Last week, the Land Bank said this also applied to senior financial manager Kumenderi Pillay, who had recently resigned.
Moeketsi said in his statement that, in the case of staff members named in a newspaper report as having been suspended, ”such suspensions were not as a consequence of the Cabinet decision in relation to the forensic audit”.
One of the people named was Land Bank board chairperson Lungile Mazwai.
The Cabinet has resolved to refer the audit report to the police and National Directorate of Public Prosecutions for further investigation and possible prosecution. – Sapa