Last night, President Cyril Ramaphosa did a blink-and-you-’ll-miss-it cabinet reshuffle, moving the embattled Thembi Simelane from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to the Department of Human Settlements. She replaces and is being replaced by Mmamoloko Kubayi, making this a reshuffle in the truest sense of the word.
But what prompted the president to move Simelane to a different portfolio?
In September, we told you about allegations against Simelane in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal—the same scandal that saw around R2 billion disappear from depositors’ pockets.
It is alleged that Simelane received a “loan” of over half a million rand from a company implicated in brokering unlawful investments. Back in 2016, when she was Mayor of Polokwane Municipality, Simelane accepted a “commercial loan” of R575,600 from Gundo Wealth Solutions, a company owned by Ralliom Razwinane. This same company was involved in securing R349 million worth of questionable investments into VBS Mutual Bank on behalf of the Polokwane Municipality.
Simelane said the loan was to purchase Silvanas Coffee Shop in Sandton, Johannesburg. However, the timing of this loan has raised eyebrows since it coincided with VBS paying Razwinane a total of R24.2 million in kickbacks for securing municipal investments, including from Polokwane.
Investigations have hinted that these transactions were far from legit. They appear to have been tied to a scheme where kickbacks were exchanged for large deposits made by municipalities into VBS.
Simelane appeared before the Justice and Constitutional Department portfolio committee on 6 September and claimed to have fully repaid the “loan.”
However, a report by News24 and The Daily Maverick has found that less than two years after Simelane received the contentious loan, she started to live luxuriously. The report found that her spending habits increased, with Simelane spending 569% more than her annual income.
The quiet reshuffle has been slammed by many, including the Democratic Alliance. DA Spokesperson on Justice and Constitutional Development, Glynnis Breytenbach, said that Simelane did not belong in the cabinet. “While the President has finally addressed the untenable conflict of interest of having a Minister of Justice accused of corruption, his decision to simply move her somewhere else does not address the underlying issue, she stands accused of corruption and is subject to investigations,” said Breytenbach.
The NGO Freedom Under Law decried the reshuffle, calling for Simelane to be fired. “No matter the ministry she heads up, her credibility will […] continue to be undermined for as long [as] these allegations are not answered fully,” they said in a statement. The uMkhonto we Sizwe Party has defended Simelane, saying that her removal from the Justice portfolio was a “calculated move to silence a principled leader who refuses to align with Mr Ramaphosa’s factional and self-serving agenda.” 👀
The Economic Freedom Fighters condemned the reshuffle, saying it was a “pointless exercise that will do nothing to address the suffering of the people of South Africa.” ActionSA’s Athol Trollip said that the move was “last ditch” and “cowardly”, saying that ActionSA would never accept “the president’s attempt to shield the minister from facing true accountability.”
Simelane has yet to comment.
Tshego is a writer and law student from Pretoria. A keen follower of social media trends, his interests include high fantasy media, politics, science, talk radio, reading and listening to music.
He is also probably one of the only people left who still play Pokemon Go.
