Thembi Simelane: a tale of two tragedies

THEMBI Simelane is the Minister of Justice and Political Development. The political bomb that exploded last week in reference to her possible involvement in corruption is not easy for me to process. I have a soft spot for Thembi. My good friend at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Missing Persons Unit, Madelaine Fullard, has been concerned for many years with the disappearance of the minister's sister, Nokuthula Simelane.

The developments in the media in the past week and Simelane's alleged involvement in the VBS scandal hinder a political reputation of great integrity. In all her years in the public service and the liberation struggle, Simelane was never implicated in state capture or corruption.  

I haven't met the minister but have always been moved by the terrible suffering of her family who could never find finality regarding the torture, death and disappearance of Nokuthula. Nokuthula's story is emblematic of the unresolved traumas of apartheid and the challenges of comprehensive accountability and justice in the post-apartheid era. Simelane's honest efforts to get justice for her sister must not be undone now.

But investigative journalism by News24's Kyle Cowan and Daily Maverick's Pauli van Wyk indicates that during her term as mayor of Polokwane (2014-2021) Simelane received bribes from Ralliom Razwinane of Gundo Wealth Solutions, a central figure and accused in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal. The law firm Werksmans and advocate Terry Motau claim Razwinane is in the middle of the eventual collapse of the bank.

In September and October 2016, VBS paid suspicious commissions of R1,667,314 to Razwinane. The allegation is that some of the money funded favours or bribes in corrupt transactions with political heads of several municipalities in Limpopo – and other provinces – in exchange for deposits in the VBS bank. It is alleged that at the time, Polokwane Municipality – on the recommendation of Razwinane and with the approval of Simelane – made illegal investments worth R349 million in VBS.

It is further alleged that in the same week that the so-called commission was paid to Gundo Wealth Solutions, R575,600 was paid to a company called Ricovert which owned a coffee shop, Silvanas, in the Fredman Towers in Sandton. According to Van Wyk, the first signs of the minister's footsteps in the alleged corruption were only seen after she took ownership of the coffee shop.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is familiar with Simelane's political past. He trusts her more than most of his colleagues. My question is: when the president asked her to take over the ministry of justice, did it occur to her to explain that her appointment could be a glaring case of conflicting interests? She knew she and Polokwane Municipality were involved in the VBS case

Did no one in the NPA inform the president before he could inaugurate the minister that she was implicated in the VBS scandal? Two of the 13 complaints of corruption and money laundering against Razwinane specifically relate to Polokwane Municipality's VBS investment. Simelane comes from Limpopo, the province where this specific corruption took place in several municipalities. Ramaphosa must have suspected something or maybe even known. And if he didn't know, it should have occurred to him to ask questions before he offered the job to Simelane. It is precisely these inconsistencies when it comes to accountability, the policing of financial crimes and the prosecution of money laundering that have put South Africa on the Financial Action Task Force grey list.

It has been common knowledge within the Hawks and the NPA for some time that Polokwane Municipality was involved in the VBS scandal during Simelane's time as mayor. Now she is the political head of the NPA and chairs the cabinet committee for justice and crime prevention, where the Hawks and the NPA report. There can hardly be a more valid case of conflicting interests than this one.

Glynnis Breytenbach, the DA spokesperson on justice and constitutional development, quite rightly requested last week that the minister should appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice.

But it is the case of the minister's sister, Nokuthula, which may be at the centre of the conflicting interests I am talking about today. Thembi has been a senior member of the ANC for many years and it only made sense that she would lead the search for justice on behalf of the family.

Nokuthula was a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC. She was born in Bethal, Mpumalanga, in 1960 and became involved in anti-apartheid activities in the early 1980s. She was a student at the University of Swaziland when she was recruited by MK, after which she served as an underground operator – mainly as a courier involved in gathering intelligence.

In 1983, while on a mission in Johannesburg, Simelane was ambushed by the security police under the pretext of a meeting with a fellow operative. The apartheid state was an active perpetrator of the human rights violations of which it accused the ANC and MK, and Nokuthula was kidnapped and taken to various places in the old Northern and Western Transvaal, including a remote farmhouse where she was tortured for weeks.

The exact circumstances of her death remain a mystery and it has always been assumed that she was eventually killed by her captors and buried in an unmarked grave. The NPA Missing Persons Unit's efforts to locate her grave have been unsuccessful, and those who know where it is refuse to speak.

Simelane became the mayor of Polokwane in 2014 but was still involved in the search for justice for her sister. She constantly put pressure on the police and the NPA to prosecute those responsible for her sister's abduction and disappearance. Her story is a poignant reminder of the many unresolved human rights violations from that era. With the latest developments, there will probably be voices raised that consider her role as political head of the NPA a conflict of interest, something that may mean a further setback in the search for Nokuthula's remains.

During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in the 1990s, several policemen applied for amnesty and admitted abducting and torturing Simelane, but denied involvement in her death. Despite their testimony, the important details of her fate and the location of her remains have never been fully disclosed. The TRC granted amnesty to some of those involved and recommended further investigations with a view to prosecution, but the family's search for justice continued without the political support necessary to bring it to fruition.

In 2015 they filed a lawsuit, and after years of inadequate legal processes the NPA decided in 2016 to institute prosecution. Four members of the Soweto security branch – Msebenzi Radebe, Willem Coetzee, Anton Pretorius and Frederick Mong – were charged with Nokuthula's kidnapping, torture and murder. The gruelling legal process never really got a proper direction.

More recently, Coetzee's legal team argued that a mental illness made the likelihood of a fair trial impossible. And it has often been speculated that the ANC does not have the political will to see the process through. In this respect, the NPA was a lackey of the political orders in the Union Buildings.

The frustration for the Simelane family is endless, and it has only been exacerbated by continuous delays in the trial of the accused. When Thembi and Nokuthula's 80-year-old mother, Ernestine Simelane, was informed in October 2020 that the court case she has been asking for decades was scheduled for October this year, her depressing response was, “What's taking them so long? They want me to die first.”

Referring to the grief of her elderly mother, Simelane remarked at the time: “My mother does not think she will make it to October 2024. Even the perpetrators grow old and die. Who among them will still be there to stand trial in October 2024?" Thembi and Nokuthula's father died of a heart attack in 2001, long before he could find closure for the torture and death of his daughter.

Nokothula Simelane's case has become symbolic of the fight for justice for the victims of apartheid-era crimes. Thembi and her family's struggle to unravel the truth about Nokothula's fate symbolises the broader search for accountability for human rights violations during the apartheid years. I hope this honourable fight is not derailed by the VBS scandal.

♦ VWB ♦

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