The Chronicles of Grand Azania, Part One: How a slush fund paid for Floyd Shivambu’s wedding

“Heita... Please don’t forget to activate that intervention. Am in great need.”

Floyd Shivambu sent this distress flare of a message to businessman Lawrence Mulaudzi in a WhatsApp message on 27 March 2017.

The message is one of a series of cellphone discussions between Shivambu and Mulaudzi, who has been probed by the Mpati Commission investigating wrongdoing at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

The type of “intervention” Shivambu appealed for was clear: He followed up his plea with the FNB account details of his slush fund Grand Azania (Pty) Ltd.

Before the end of 2017, Mulaudzi deposited R500,000 worth in “interventions” to Grand Azania.

The sequence of events following Shivambu’s “great need” is to date the clearest case study of how he solicits possibly illegal cash which he then personally directs towards front companies to be used in support of his lifestyle. This appears to be a prime example of money laundering. In return for these “interventions”, the evidence suggests that Shivambu used his political influence to bring profitable deals to Mulaudzi.

Scorpio’s 11-month investigation into the extracurricular activities of EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu was triggered by the R2-billion robbery of VBS Mutual Bank. A web of patronage, set up to supplement Shivambu’s income through supporting his lifestyle and political aspirations, surfaced piece by piece over months as an increasing number of disenchanted sources came forward. Our findings in this article focus only on his wedding, and are supported by three sets of bank statements, private cellphone messages and emails between Shivambu and his benefactors, as well as key documents and sources.

Shivambu and Mulaudzi deny all wrongdoing.

Floyd’s ‘great need’

The “great need” becomes clear upon the comparison of Shivambu’s messages to Mulaudzi with the Grand Azania bank statements: There was only R745.41 left in the Grand Azania bank account when he fired off the distress signal to Mulaudzi. By 27 March 2017, Grand Azania had already paid R100,000 marked as “Fs Wedding” to events company Be-Sure Events Solutions. His wedding to Siphesihle Pezi was a month away and his slush fund was empty.

So Shivambu kept on pushing Mulaudzi. Between 27 and 29 March 2017, he sent multiple messages emphasising his “great need”. In one of the messages, Mulaudzi placated Shivambu, saying:

“Evening DP, I sent instruction to process out standing matter...” and later “DP, instruction was sent. Let’s give them some few hours.”

On the afternoon of 29 March 2017, a R200,000 payment from Mulaudzi indeed reflected in the Grand Azania bank statements.

Nyiko Floyd Shivambu’s “big need” is evident when comparing his slush fund Grand Azania’s bank statements with his messages to Lawrence Mulaudzi. After paying R100,000 for his wedding, there is only R745,41 left in the Grand Azania account. By 29 March 2017 R200,000 from Mulaudzi reflects in his bank statements. Shivambu has consistently denied that he had any knowledge of or derived any benefit from Grand Azania, yet variations of his name appear around 80 times in the bank statements.

An untraceable cash deposit reflects in Grand Azania’s bank statements on 10 April 2017. This, along with the money deposited by Lawrence Mulaudzi and a second benefactor, alleviates Nyiko Floyd Shivambu’s cash flow problem. On 18 April Grand Azania pays R80,000 to Be Sure Events for his wedding. This is followed by R18,450 to the photographer from Thohoyandou two days later.

(Side note: Ramabulana and his “adviser”, attorney Paul Makhavhu, were fingered as two of the chief looters of VBS Mutual bank. They received at least R30.4-million for lending the support and influence of the royal family to VBS and Vele, advocate Terry Motau and Werksmans found. Makhavhu later described the receipt of these payments to Motau as “shameful”, agreeing there was no lawful cause for the VBS payments to them.)

• His identification number and variations of his name appear about 80 times in the bank statements. These variations include “Fs Shivambu”, “Nyiko” and “Floyd”.


• Variations of Brian Shivambu’s name only appear 13 times, despite him being the ostensible “owner” of the account.


• The names of Shivambu’s daughter, his wife, as well as the names of his brothers and parents further appear in the bank statements as beneficiaries of his slush fund.

Nyiko Floyd Shivambu first denied any knowledge of Grand Azania, and later tweaked his version to state that the company belongs to his brother Brian. Scorpio’s analysis shows that Brian received very little of the dodgy millions washing through Grand Azania. Brian seems to have managed certain tasks and the account for his brother, as is suggested by the above payments to Floyd’s wedding which bear Brian’s name.