Illustrative image | The mansion in Constantia, Cape Town, which is worth R28-million. (Photo: Hardie Properties) | Deputy President Paul Mashatile. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu) 
The ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) deliberated on the fate of two of its most senior members, Deputy President Paul Mashatile and Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane, over the weekend and is expected to provide an update on the Integrity Commission’s reports on their conduct soon.
Opening a shopping centre in Durban days before the NEC conference, Mashatile continued to boldly deny that there was anything irregular about two luxury properties – worth R65-million – that he had declared in Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests.
Speaking at the official opening of the Inkosi Simingaye Shopping Centre at KwaXimba near Cato Ridge in Durban on 31 July, he responded to a question about the properties by saying “people must read”.
“There is nothing in Parliament that I said that I own a house. I said I live there,” he insisted.
On Sunday, the NEC broke for an hour, asking Mashatile and Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane to excuse themselves while the Integrity Commission presented cases on allegations of corruption.
Outing himself
Mashatile was outed by News24 after the public release of Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests in late July.
Mashatile had declared ownership of the two properties – a multi-bedroom mansion in Constantia, Cape Town, worth R28-million, and another in Waterfall, Midrand, worth R37-million.
News24 has had eyes on Mashatile’s luxury lifestyle for ages and in 2024 first reported that a company, belonging to Mashatile’s son-in-law, Nceba Nonkwelo, had bought the Constantia house in 2023.
Mashatile lives in the house when he is in Cape Town. Nonkwelo is married to Mashatile’s daughter, Palesa.
Whether or not the declaration in the register was a Freudian slip, this annual ritual of holding public representatives to account has uncovered a tidy stash belonging to the deputy president.
Diamonds are not forever
Over and above his eye for property bling, Mashatile has admitted to receiving a diamond from grifter Louis Liebenberg, currently behind bars, awaiting trial on various criminal charges.
Read more: Diamond scam-accused Louis Liebenberg in fresh bid to get out of jail
Liebenberg had boasted that he had given the deputy president a diamond as a gift. In the meantime Mashatile has paid a R10,000 fine imposed by the Joint Committee on Members’ Ethics for failing to declare the gift.
Mashatile had stated that he wanted to have the diamond “weighed” to check its value before declaring it. And besides, it had been a gift for his wife, Humile.
This response – doing the deed out in the open – was not appreciated by the committee.
Read more: Jacob Zuma and Louis Liebenberg in Zulu-Boer wonderland
Liebenberg also gifted former president Jacob Zuma about R1-million to sue News24 journalist Karyn Maughan and prosecutor Billy Downer.
Simelane and the ghost of VBS
Daily Maverick and News24 first sniffed out that former Minister of Justice, now Minister of Human Settlements, Thembi Simelane had taken out a R575,600 loan she obtained from VBS corruption-accused fixer Ralliom Razwinane in 2016.
Simelane later told the portfolio committee for justice and constitutional development that she had had no improper relationship with Razwinane or his company, Gundo Wealth Solutions.
Read more: Fact-Check: Tall Tales – How Thembi Simelane misled Parliament in explaining VBS-linked loan
Gundo had been appointed by the Polokwane Municipality to provide investment brokerage services for three years in March and April 2016.
Between 16 September 2016 and 5 May 2017, Polokwane invested R349-million in five transactions with VBS and withdrew its money between 16 March and 3 July 2017, earning R12.7-million in interest.
As Kyle Cowan and Pauli van Wyk wrote in October 2024: “Since the publication of the existence of the loan by Daily Maverick and News24, Simelane has steadfastly maintained there was no conflict of interest then – between Gundo being a service provider to Polokwane while she was mayor and getting a loan from them – or now – with her oversight of the National Prosecuting Authority that is pursuing cases against dozens of VBS fraud- and corruption-accused persons and companies.”
Simelane was shifted to Human Settlements when the heat reached the kitchen. She will know her new fate soon. DM