Justice minister Thembi Simelane. [Picture: Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images]
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s coalition Cabinet might be in for a shakeup. This is according to an expert, whose comments came as the president was set to have an audience with his VBS-tainted justice minister.
This week, Thembi Simelane was fingered for a possible conflict of interest. While mayor of Polokwane, she secured a loan from Gundo Wealth Solutions, the company that brokered an investment deal between the municipality and VBS Bank.
Speaking in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday, UNISA political sciences professor, Dirk Kotzé said Simelane was in a “vulnerable” position. He said there was a change in atmosphere under the coalition government, which could work against her.
“She is in a vulnerable position. The ANC, and specifically President Ramaphosa as the head of the executive, is now willing to take action against members of the executive who have been identified as being involved in corrupt, fraudulent, or other forms of activity, or been charged/accused of that,” he said.
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Cabinet shakeup
Simelane and her Cabinet colleagues have just started settling into their offices after a busy election season, but her saga could shake things up. Kotzé did not discard the possibility of a vacancy in the justice ministry.
“There is certainly a difference in the atmosphere in the way in which persons within the government or senior persons within the ANC are now treated. They are less protected … This is a threat for the minister in that respect.”
As such, he said, it would be “exceptionally difficult” for Ramaphosa to simply treat it as a “wait-and-see” type of a process”. He will likely be pressured into taking action, even if that might not happen immediately.
“It doesn’t have to happen immediately,” he said, adding that the position may be vacant for a while “until he’s reached a point where there is more than one portfolio that must be filled or he wants to change the composition of it [Cabinet].”
The Democratic Alliance (DA), a major coalition partner under the GNU formation, wants Simelane to answer before Parliament. Opposition parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ActionSA, have also demanded action.
