Justice & constitutional development minister Thembi Simelane is expected to come out fighting on Friday with proof in hand that she paid back a VBS Mutual Bank loan with interest.
Simelane has been summoned to appear before parliament’s portfolio committee on justice over alleged dodgy dealings with VBS, which imploded in 2018.
She will be up against it on Friday as the portfolio committee includes the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach and MK party’s John Hlophe.
Sources told Business Day on Thursday Simelane would offer proof that she had paid back in full the loan she took in 2016. She would also detail that during her time as mayor of Polokwane the municipality had not only invested a budget surplus with VBS, but also with Standard Bank and Sanlam.
It is understood that Simelane paid back more than R800,000 to VBS on a loan exceeding R500,000.
She is expected to send the proof of repayment to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, which had also asked her for a full and detailed account.
News24 and Daily Maverick reported last week that Simelane’s loan appeared to be linked to kickbacks paid in exchange for deposits the municipality made to the financial institution.
VBS is widely accused of bribing politicians in some of SA’s poorest municipalities in Limpopo, convincing them to divert government budgets in exchange for cash and gifts.
The Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution, Freedom Under Law, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Judges Matter and Defend Our Democracy previously called on Simelene to account for the allegations, saying that as justice minister it was important for her to clear her name as she was at the helm of the National Prosecuting Authority, which was a conflict of interest.
The justice portfolio committee, which is chaired by the ANC’s Xola Nqola, has confirmed Friday’s engagement with Simelane.
Nqola said in a statement that the committee noted with grave concern the allegations in media reports regarding the alleged loan to the minister.
“These types of allegations are damaging to the image that SA is trying to portray as a country ridding itself of any form of corruption,” he said.
Decisive
Ramaphosa has in the past been decisive against claims of malfeasance in his administration. After he was elected president in 2018, he sacked ministers who were tainted by state capture allegations.
Malusi Gigaba lost his job as home affairs minister and so did Mosebenzi Zwane, former president Jacob Zuma’s mineral resources minister and now corruption accused.
During the Covid-19 pandemic Ramaphosa suspended Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, his communications minister, for two months without pay for breaching restrictions meant to contain the spread of the virus.
In the first few months of his presidency, he fired Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister for having lied to a journalist about meeting the Gupta family, who Zuma described as his friends.
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