‘Simelane’s non-disclosure of loan is conflict of interest’

The DA in the Polokwane municipal council in Limpopo says Justice Minister and former Polokwane Executive Mayor, Thembi Simelane’s controversial VBS Mutual bank-linked loan was never declared to council.

Simelane received a loan of over R500 000  from VBS-linked Gundo Wealth Solution while she was executive mayor of the Polokwane Municipality between 2014 and 2021.

At the time, the municipality had illegally invested R300 million  in the bank. The investment was later withdrawn.

DA Councillor, Jacques Joubert says Simelane’s failure to declare the loan to council at the time indicates a conflict of interest.

“Then minister must reflect or just give us information on what she declared to the municipality at that stage. According to me, there’s conflict of interest, because she did get information from the service provider of the municipality although she says it unsolicited bid. It raises other questions with regards to that. The issue is she had a relationship with the service provider to the municipality and I think that’s should not be condoned at all.

Meanwhile, the EFF in Limpopo says Simelane should apologise to South Africans and step aside from her position over allegations levelled against her.

EFF Limpopo Provincial Chairperson, Lawrence Mapoulo says Simelane should confess that she offended thousands of retired people in the province, who lost their life savings when the bank collapsed in 2018.

“She must try to come clear on the matter. We are not children we are leaders if she was strong enough and go into open and ask for forgiveness. I think South Africans are forgiving. We have forgiven people who killed and raped our mothers and stolen our land what about her? She must come clear and tell the people to say I’ve committed this and I see I’ve offended the majority of old people who invested their pensions and stokvel monies on VBS.”

Several political parties in Polokwane call for a probe into Justice Minister’s VBS loan: