Johannesburg – South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday asked the country’s justice minister to explain graft allegations linking her to a $130 million bank scandal, amid mounting calls for her to step down.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has noted with concern media reports containing allegations of corruption” against Thembi Simelane, the president’s office said in a statement.
Local media have reported that Simelane allegedly received an improper loan of over 500,000 rand ($28,000) during her tenure as the mayor of Polokwane, the capital city of the northeastern Limpopo province, between 2014 and 2021.
Reports linked the payment to a fraud scandal at VBS Mutual Bank, which collapsed in 2018, with authorities blaming looting by executives and politicians.
“The president has requested a detailed report and briefing from the minister on the matter,” the presidency said.
Several political parties have called for Simelane to resign and a swift probe into the matter.
A leftist opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), called for Simelane’s “immediate resignation”, despite some of its own leaders being alleged to have taken bribes as part of the scandal.
Due to her “involvement in looting” the bank, “it is now clear that Simelane has no place in the executive leadership of this country”, the EFF said.
The centrist Democratic Alliance (DA) party said the “allegations raise serious questions about the minister’s integrity and her ability to fulfil the critical role of upholding justice”.
GOOD, a smaller party, said: “Simelane cannot remain the minister responsible for a justice system that may well have to investigate and prosecute her.”
The 51-year-old minister was appointed in June after the historic African National Congress (ANC) was forced into an uneasy coalition with the DA and other smaller parties after May’s elections.
The party had lost its absolute parliamentary majority for the first time since democracy in 1994.
High-ranking officials within the ANC have been involved in numerous graft scandals including Ramaphosa and his deputy as well as the country’s former national assembly speaker.
A 2018 report by the South African Reserve Bank detailed how $130 million (116 million euros) was stolen from VBS over three years by 53 individuals, including executives and politicians.
The customers who lost their savings in the plunder of the bank were mainly poor rural depositors, including pensioners, the report said.
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Source: AFP
Picture: X/@MzwaneleManyi
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