The clock is ticking for President Cyril Ramaphosa to decide if Thembi Simelane is fit for office as justice minister.
The Presidency said on Thursday there was no update yet on her submission to counter corruption and money-laundering allegations against her, linked to a loan by VBS Mutual Bank, which collapsed in 2018.
While Simelane says she paid back more than R800,000 to VBS Mutual Bank on a loan exceeding R500,000, the Presidency has not yet confirmed whether the loan agreement was among the documents his justice minister handed to the president.
“The president is still applying his mind on the matter,” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said.
Until Ramaphosa makes a decision, he will have to read about the allegations against Simelane in the media and it will continue to undermine his efforts to reverse the tide of corruption in South Africa.
Simelane, as justice minister, is at the helm of the National Prosecuting Authority, which may have to lead a prosecution against her once the SAPS, through the Hawks, completes its investigation.
At face value, Simelane’s loan from VBS Mutual Bank looks to be out of former president Jacob Zuma’s playbook. She talked to VBS Mutual Bank commissioning agent Ralliom Razwinane about a loan from July to September 2016, the month Zuma secured a VBS Mutual Bank bond to repay R7.8m for non-security upgrades to Nkandla, such as the cattle kraal and swimming pool.
In March 2016 the Constitutional Court ruled the National Assembly “acted inconsistent with the constitution” when it absolved Zuma from the repayments ordered by the public protector, and upheld the required settlement.
Thirteen years earlier, in November 2003, the parliamentary joint ethics committee had agreed with Zuma that the more than R1m in home-related benefits he received from friends and associates were loans and did not need to be declared.
The ethics rule changed in 2014 when the new code of conduct required parliamentarians to declare “long-term loans” alongside mortgages.
Because the VBS Mutual Bank’s coffee shop loan was repaid in 2020, Simelane didn’t declare it after joining the national executive as deputy co-operative governance minister.
The ANC meanwhile is expected to weigh in on the allegations against Simelane by the end of October, after her appearance before the party’s integrity commission in September.
“The commission interacts with those who appear before it and submits its reports with recommendations. The ANC national executive committee is the one which acts on the recommendations and announce the outcomes,” the head of the integrity commission, Frank Chikane, said.
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