By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
ActionSA says it will lay criminal charges against the embattled Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Thembi Simelane in Polokwane.
Simelane took a R500 000 loan from the company that was involved in brokering unlawful investments in the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank.
She is under pressure to step down after it emerged that she received a loan from a VBS-linked fixer to pay for a Sandton coffee shop.
He received a loan from Gundo Wealth Solutions during her tenure as Polokwane mayor.
Simelane told Parliament that she had repaid R849,000 on the loan some four years later in three payments, in October and November 2020 with a final payment in January 2021. She offered no proof of these payments and claimed she received no undue benefit.
The same company had solicited deposits of millions of rands from the Polokwane municipality on behalf of VBS, despite public finance rules barring municipalities from placing money with mutual banks.
In total, Polokwane deposited R349-million with VBS between 2016 and 2017. The full amount was withdrawn prior to the bank’s collapse in 2018, caused by extensive looting by the bank’s management, fixers as well as ANC and EFF politicians.
Razwinane, however, is facing charges of corruption for payments he received from VBS in connection with the Polokwane deposits. He was paid commissions, effectively success fees, for securing the deposits. Prosecutors labelled these payments corrupt.
VBS collapsed in 2018 after its coffers were depleted by a fraadulent scheme in which money flowed from suspense accounts to bank officials and their family members.
She also denied that there was any conflict of interest between her position as justice minister, with oversight of the National Prosecuting Authority, which is pursuing charges against several VBS corruption accused.
“ActionSA will file criminal charges against the Minister of Justice, Thembi Simelane, for allegedly violating the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PRECCA) in connection with the dodgy R575,600 so-called ‘loan’ she solicited during her tenure as Mayor of Polokwane from Gundo Wealth Solutions, the party said in a statement.
“It is well established that the so-called ‘loan’ was obtained in 2016 from Gundo Wealth Solutions, the same investment brokerage that unlawfully invested R349 million of Polokwane Municipality’s funds into the now-collapsed VBS Bank.
“New information suggesting the probable backdating of the loan agreement to potentially conceal the transaction warrants a criminal investigation.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa is yet to make a decision on Simelane’s future following a report that he received in which she details the circumstances of the alleged loan.
Meanwhile African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has dismissed claims that he’s lobbying for Simelane to step aside.
The ANC is yet to pronounce itself on the claims levelled against the minister. Simelane appeared before the party’s integrity committee last week.