A massive 1.9 billion rand ($A182 million) has been looted from a flailing South African bank over the past several years, an investigation has revealed.
A forensic investigation report entitled "The Great Bank Heist" - released by the country's central bank on Wednesday - details what happened at VBS Mutual Bank, showing that 53 people or entities had "gratuitously" received money between 2015 and 2018.
Many high-ranking individuals are implicated in the report, including former president Jacob Zuma, who was forced to resign earlier this year amid corruption allegations and is now standing trial on numerous counts of graft.
The report's author, advocate Terry Motau, said the former chief executive of VBS, Andile Ramavhunga, had told him about a 1.5 million rand payment to an organization he called the Dudu Myeni Foundation in order to secure a 1 billion rand deposit from a state-owned rail agency.
There was no foundation of that name and the payment had probably been made to the Jacob G Zuma Foundation, which is chaired by Myeni, Motau said.
VBS, a relatively small mutual bank, first made headlines in 2016 when it lent the then-president millions of rand after he was court-ordered to pay back taxpayer money that had been used for upgrades on his private home.
VBS was placed under curatorship on March 11 following what was termed a "serious liquidity crisis" and the investigation followed.
"It is imperative that those who have been identified as participating and benefiting from this criminal enterprise be charged and prosecuted," advocate Motau wrote in the report.
Motau described the bank as "rotten to the core," and said that there is "hardly a person in its employ in any position of authority who is not, in some way or the other, complicit."
