Illustrative Image: Thembi Simelane, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development. (Photo: Sourced / Facebook) | Parliament in Cape Town burns on 3 January 2022. (Images: Gallo Images / ER Lombard) | VBS logo (Photo: Adobestock) | Scale: Freepok) | Mercedes Benz Viano. (Image: Sourced / Autotrader website) | A Disney performer dressed as Mickey Mouse entertains guests. (Photo: Bing Guan / Bloomberg | Graphic: Daniella Lee Ming) 
Justice Minister Thembi Simelane’s lifestyle surged into extravagance in 2018 while she was still mayor of Polokwane when she spent 569% more than her known annual income.
This was less than two years after she had taken a R575,600 “loan” from VBS-fixer Gundo Wealth Solutions to pay for a coffee shop in Sandton. She recently claimed to have lacked the funds to finance the business herself.
The source of the lavish funds Simelane spent during 2018 remains opaque. Between March 2018 and February 2019, Simelane spent at least R2.89-million.
However, her post-tax annual income tallied to about R509,220.
Her expenses for the year included the cash purchase of a vacant stand in an upmarket, gated Pretoria neighbourhood. A Mercedes-Benz Viano, bought with cash. A family trip to Disney World. Luxury “shopping therapy”.
Our calculations include only what we can prove with verifiable documents. In some cases, we highlight where our information is limited and an underestimation of Simelane’s expenses. We further exclude her normal living and travel costs, property taxes and renovations as well as school and education fees for four children.
Simelane represented South Africa at the International Congress of Justice Ministers in Rome last week and this week attends the assembly of states parties of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Simelane declined to address questions about her sources of income.
Said Simelane’s spokesperson Tsekiso Machike: “The minister has noted your questions which emanate from an unauthorised lifestyle audit you purport to have conducted against her. The minister will not be participating in anything or answering any questions that are a product of this campaign that your publications are running against her.”
Simelane was married to Limpopo politician and businessman Chipyane Clifton Nkadimeng at the time, although we understand that the relationship had long fizzled out by around 2018. In early 2024, Simelane reportedly got engaged to businessman and former chair of the board at Roads Agency Limpopo Matome Ralebipi. She did not indicate that either of the two men bankrolled her expenses.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Pauli_Simelaniexpenses.jpg "This graphic shows the income and expenses we could verify for Thembi Simelane during the 2018/19 financial year. The income she received from and declared to Polokwane Municipality totals to R509,220. The expenses we could verify were big-ticket items, including a property in Pretoria and a Mercedes-Benz Viano – each worth more than R1-million. Our calculations of Simelane’s expenses do not include funds she would have used for subsistence, travel or accommodation. This suggests her expenses were much more than we could accurately calculate, which indicate that Simelane has spent far north than what she received. Simelane is therefore a prime candidate for a thorough lifestyle audit conducted by the authorities. She declined to explain the origin of her wealth.")
Simelane’s income in the 2018/19 financial year
All tallied in 2018/19, Simelane’s cash in the bank totalled around R509,220.
In her position as mayor of Polokwane, Simelane received post-tax pay of about R468,000 per year, documents from National Treasury and Polokwane Municipality show.
That is about R39,000 per month. (Her full pre-tax package, as declared by National Treasury online, was R1.01-million, which included a basic salary, allowances and contributions.)
She received an additional yearly honorarium of R11,220 as president of the South African Local Government Association, annual reports show.
Simelane further declared additional income to the municipality from her “consultancy business”, Golden Threads, that put another R30,000 in her pocket for the year.
By then, Silvana’s Coffee Shop, bought with VBS kickbacks to Ralliom Razwinane, was fully operational. Simelane however declared “TS Restaurant” offered her zero income for the year.
Simelane’s declarations claimed to have owned some shares, too. The portfolio was not healthy enough to account for the surge in wealth her expenses show and in her answers to Daily Maverick and News 24, she did not point towards dividends or the selling of shares as a possible source of income.
Her expenses however tell a different story.
Mercedes-Benz Viano
In early 2018, Simelane was noticed driving a new black Mercedes-Benz Viano V250D Avant Garde around Polokwane. A new bus retailed at around R1.18-million at the time. Sources say the bus was “always parked overnight at Simelane’s Polokwane house”. She allegedly referred to it as her own and personally handled some of the Viano’s paperwork. The true ownership was then, however, shrouded in mystery.
Daily Maverick and News 24 can now shine new light on the transaction. The Viano was bought from Mercedes-Benz in Bryanston, a source confirmed, who said paperwork indicated it was paid for in cash.
The Viano was registered in her mother’s name, who was 78 years old in 2018. A friend of the family claimed Simelane’s mother was never seen driving the car and did not have the financial means, nor the interest at 78, to buy a Viano worth north of R1-million.
Simelane declined to explain why her mother was the registered “owner”, and who funded the purchase.
Family trip to Disney World, Florida
Around April 2018, Simelane asked a travel agency to plan a family trip to the Walt Disney World theme park in Florida, United States.
In late June, she took her three youngest children and her brother’s son on an eight-day fantasy holiday to America, a paid invoice shows.
This bill, including flight tickets, visas and park passes, racked up to just more than R171,000. The passes gave Simelane and her kids access to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom theme parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon Water Parks, Hollywood Studios and the Oak Trail Golf Course.
The additional costs of the trip, which included transfers from the airport to the family’s accommodation at the All-Star Movies Resort as well as meals and entertainment, were excluded from the paperwork we had seen.
A source with in-depth knowledge of the family trip claimed the total cost was about R500,000. Simelane did not confirm or deny this allegation. We do not include this figure in our final calculation as we do not have evidence in support of the total cost. The fact, however, remains that the Simelane family had to pay additional fees for accommodation, meals and entertainment.
We understand that at least the bulk of the holiday was paid from the account linked to Simelane’s business, T5 Investment Group. Simelane did not answer questions about the origin of the money in T5 Investment, nor about who funded the holiday.
‘Shopping therapy’ at Luxity, Sandton
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-02-at-16.20.58_a84ae46a.jpg "Thembi Simelane during a visit to Moscow as part of a BRICS justice ministers meeting in September. She is carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag resembling a model from the high-end marque called the ‘On the Go BB’. A second-hand black leather bag such as this was on sale for R58,000 at the time of writing. (Photo: Thembi Simelane / Facebook)")
In March 2016, Simelane reportedly told a journalist at the Polokwane Observer that “I have yet to see a woman who doesn’t enjoy shopping. If she exists, please introduce her to me so I can get the recipe … I do some shopping therapy, which is actually not advisable.”
She added that the cost of her “shopping therapy” depended on how stressed she was at the time.
“My favourites are shoes and handbags,” Simelane was quoted as having said. “Shopping is great therapy – it really does work!”
Eight invoices over four consecutive months in 2018 from Luxity, a new and pre-owned luxury goods shop, set out her standard of living. The items were ordered online and delivered to Simelane’s Polokwane home address.
Simelane’s “shopping therapy” for these four months tallied up to R250,000. Her salary over the same period totalled around R156,000.
The first invoice we gained access to was dated 12 July 2018 and shows Simelane bought a Louis Vuitton calfskin leather handbag for R40,000.
In August 2018, two invoices detailed Simelane’s Gucci suede handbag, Gucci sunglasses and a Burberry calfskin tote bag, costing R36,500.
In September, Simelane racked up a bill of R137,500 buying two pairs of Christian Louboutin heels, a Gucci travel bag on wheels and a Gucci duffel bag, a quilted Chanel tote bag, a Louis Vuitton handbag, Salvatore Ferragamo leather pumps as well as a pair of sneakers from the same brand.
In October, she bought another Louis Vuitton handbag and a pair of Louis Vuitton boots for R36,000.
Three sources with knowledge of Simelane’s habits confirmed her buying sprees. One source claimed Simelane habitually bought from Luxity for more than a year. We have proof of four months worth of invoices as detailed above, and include only these in our final calculations.
The source further claimed that some of Simelane’s luxury items tended to hang in her closet for months, still with the labels attached. “She is extremely careful not to show these in the office, where Thembi usually dresses down. It is on her way to and on these foreign trips that the luxury clothes get used.”
How Simelane paid these frequent bills on a half-a-million annual post-tax salary, is unknown.
Simelane did not deny or confirm the sources’ information, nor did she explain how she could afford her luxury spend, which allegedly cost her about R1-million a year, from her legitimate income.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LuxityInvoiceP2-scaled-copy.jpg "Thembi Simelane previously admitted to journalists to indulging in ‘shopping therapy’ when stressed. We gained access to eight invoices covering four consecutive months in 2018 which showed Simelane spent R250,000 on luxury items like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry. Her after-tax salary over the same period was about R156,000. This invoice dated 28 September 2018 shows Simelane bought a Louis Vuitton Monogram Chantilly PM bag, Salvatore Ferragamo Leather Flair Pumps in burgundy and Salvatore Ferragamo Velvet Liu Rock sneakers in black for R23,500.")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LuxityInvoiceP1-scaled-copy.jpg "This invoice dated 11 September 2018 shows Simelane bought a Christian Louboutin Leather Tri Loubi Hawaii spikes small clutch bag in floral, a matching Christian Louboutin Leather Hawaii So Kate pair of heels in floral and a Gucci four-wheel suitcase in soft pink for R66,000.")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LuxityInvoiceP3-scaled-copy.jpg "This invoice dated 23 September 2018 shows Simelane bought a Gucci duffel travel bag in soft pink and a beige, quilted Chanel Caviar Leather tote bag for R48,000.")
Hazeldean, empty Pretoria erf
Before Parliament this year, Simelane was at pains to explain that the “loan” funding Silvanas Coffee Shop was “above board”, but also that the business, situated in the Fredman Towers in Sandton, wasn’t all that successful. It eventually closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
Simelane’s claim in Parliament seems to be supported by her disclosures to Polokwane Municipality for four consecutive years starting in 2016 that “TS Restaurant” earned her “R0” in profit.
It is in stark contrast, then, that Daily Maverick and News 24 found a R1.2-million empty erf in an upmarket gated community registered to Simelane’s company T5 Investment, the same company which administers the coffee shop. The property is unbonded and was bought with cash. The sale was initiated in September 2018 – the same month Simelane spent R137,500 on luxury clothes at Luxity.
Simelane sidestepped questions about the origin of the funds that paid for the erf.
Parliamentary declarations
In August 2021, Simelane became a Member of Parliament – a position which requires her to make disclosures of assets, shares, directorships and gifts.
She claimed to have 100 “Sasol Inzalo” shares. Yield from these shares could not fund her extensive expenses. She declared her “residential” property in Hazeldean, too. The size of the property is an “estimated” 200 square metres, Simelane said.
That is untrue. The property, according to Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) documents, measures 1,955 square metres. The house she subsequently built on the empty erf is about 600 square metres – this calculation is, however, based solely on what is visible of the surface area of the lower level as seen on Google Earth. The house is multi-storeyed, which complicates an accurate surface area calculation.
Simelane also declared ownership of a property in Northview, Polokwane, of an “estimated” 400 square metres and a flat in Mokopane of an “estimated” 100 square metres.
Neither of these “estimations” are true either.
CIPC documents show the Polokwane property, jointly owned with Simelane’s former husband, is 700 square metres and the house measures about 432 square metres.
The Mokopane flat, which Simelane jointly owns with her former husband, is about 150 square metres, including the carport, and stands on communal land of 340,000 square metres, according to CIPC documents.
Simelane did not explain this multi-year fib to Parliament. DM
The second report in this series focuses on a snapshot of bank statements from 2019 and 2020. These suggest Simelane received much more money in her company accounts than her businesses seemingly generated.
