Illustrative image: Former justice minister Thembi Simelane. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach) | VBS Mutual Bank logo. | South African banknotes. (Photo: Adobestock) The DA is pushing back forcefully against its Government of National Unity partner, once again challenging President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to block the release of a report into former minister of justice Thembi Simelane’s alleged role in the VBS looting scandal.
The party’s plan comes after it submitted a request for access to information under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia), which it says Ramaphosa’s office rejected outright.
“The Presidency, in denying the request for information, relied on incorrect reasons and ultimately failed to consider the public interest, which is an overriding principle contained in Paia.
“The refusal letter itself is scant justification, showing the lack of care in considering this crucial application which seeks to bring the much-debated Simelane report to the public for South Africans to decide for themselves,” said DA spokesperson on justice and constitutional development, advocate Glynnis Breytenbach.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ED_519795.jpg "DA spokesperson on justice and constitutional development, advocate Glynnis Breytenbach. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)")
Breytenbach said the party had now appealed against the decision with the Presidency, under the provisions of the same Act.
“We trust that when considering the appeal, the Presidency will duly apply their mind to the issue at hand and take seriously their constitutional duty and commitment to accountability, transparency and open government,” the DA said.
The appeal comes after a Daily Maverick and News24 three-part investigation which revealed how Thembi Simelane’s lifestyle dramatically shifted to one of extravagance in 2018, while she was still mayor of Polokwane. During that year, she spent 569% more than her known annual income.
Between 2015 and 2020, Simelane allegedly spent millions of rands on luxury items, including high-end handbags, shoes, a Mercedes-Benz Viano, a family vacation to Disney World in Florida, the purchase of a coffee shop in Sandton and a gated Pretoria property where she built a multi-storey mansion. Some of this wealth is believed to have been accumulated through kickbacks from the VBS scandal.
At the height of the investigation, Ramaphosa moved Simelane from her position of justice minister to minister of human settlements, overseeing a R33-billion budget, on the evening after the first of the investigative articles was published.
Following the allegations, calls mounted for Simelane to be fired while some suggested she needed to be charged in line with the party’s step-aside resolution, which requires members facing formal criminal charges to relinquish their positions temporarily.
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula, however, came to her defence, saying: “At the present moment, the minister is not charged and has not been found guilty by any of the institutions.
“There has not been any precedent before where a person who is not charged, but implicated, in one or two things while serving as a minister has been forced by the rule to step aside,” Mbalula said at the time.
Simelane has not been criminally charged, but has been invited to the party’s integrity committee to explain herself after the allegations.
In the wake of Daily Maverick and News24’s months-long investigation, the Hawks executed a search and seizure warrant on Simelane’s former personal assistant and office at Polokwane municipality. The portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development called Simelane to Parliament to explain her coffee shop “loan” and the Public Protector opened an investigation triggered by a complaint from ActionSA MP Athol Trollip.
Ramaphosa’s ‘tick-box’ exercise
During his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, Ramaphosa announced plans to confront corruption head-on, saying the government had made significant progress in combating high-level corruption.
“We are making steady progress in the implementation of the recommendations of the State Capture Commission, including signing into law several legislative reforms,” Ramaphosa said.
The DA however believes Ramaphosa’s announcement on corruption was merely lip service, making reference to Simelane and Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who is implicated in a R2.5-million tender corruption scandal relating to her tenure as municipal manager of Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality.
“These statements are nothing more than a tick-box inclusion, wholly detached from reality.
“In the real world, where the rest of South Africa lives, the fact of the matter is that the President himself has decided to keep a minister in his Cabinet who has been linked to the VBS looting scandal, shuffling Minister Simelane’s portfolio in the vain hope that accountability has a short memory,” Breytenbach said. DM