JUDITH FEBRUARY: Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle is a disservice to South Africa

Last week, former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Thembi Simelane, attended the 14th International Congress of Justice Ministers in Rome without a hint of shame or irony. 

All the while, reports continued to swirl around her. On Monday, a joint News24 and Daily Maverick multi-part series detailed allegations of her lavish lifestyle seemingly far beyond her means during her tenure as Mayor of Polokwane. 

The latest allegations come in the wake of serious questions which remain unanswered regarding her connection to unlawful investments in VBS Mutual Bank, also during her tenure as Mayor of Polokwane, in 2016. 

Late on Monday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa was finally moved to act - sort of. In a truly bizarre and it must be said, irrational move, Rampahosa reshuffled his Cabinet. 

Simelane and Mmamoloko Kubayi, Minister of Human Settlements, will now swap positions, with Kubayi moving to Justice and Constitutional Development. 

Ramaphosa is given to inaction, but this reshuffle makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. 

Simelane faces serious allegations which will not go away simply because she has changed Cabinet positions. In fact, her position is even more untenable given that the president appears to be going to extraordinary lengths to protect her Cabinet position. 

Of concern too is that Kubayi has no background in law, nor does she have any experience in the administration of justice. It renders her appointment even more baffling. 

But she did not appoint herself.  So, more worryingly, it indicates that the president has an inadequate grasp of precisely how important the justice portfolio is. Assigning it repeatedly to neophytes will only have a deleterious impact on the rule of law. 

At the time the allegations against Simelane broke several months ago, Freedom Under Law and others called for full transparency relating to the allegations against the minister. In August, Ramaphosa requested “a detailed report and briefing from the minister on the matter". 

Ramaphosa has had this report since mid-September when he requested ‘time and space’ to deal with the matter. In September, the president told the National Assembly that he needed ‘"the time and opportunity to consider this matter so that finality can then be reached".

Since then, the president’s inexplicable inertia has compelled the Democratic Alliance (DA) to make a PAIA request for access to the report. 

The facts relating to VBS-linked loan are worth revisiting. They tell us, at the very least, that Simelane has ethical questions to answer, and at worst, that she is unfit to represent South Africans in any position. 

In late August, a joint investigation by the Daily Maverick and News24 reported that Simelane had received a loan of over R500,000 from a company which had brokered unlawful investments into the since-collapsed VBS Mutual Bank by the Polokwane Municipality, at a time when the minister was the mayor of the municipality.  

It was reported that the minister had used the loan to purchase a coffee shop in Sandton. 

It is worth highlighting why the story has attracted so much attention, and why the issues it raises are so concerning.

The incident raises serious questions about Simelane’s judgment, and her understanding of principles of ethics and conflicts of interest. The allegations invited a comprehensive explanation of the circumstances under which the loan was received, the extent to which the minister had knowledge of the link to VBS Bank, and what steps she took to convince herself that the transaction was above board. 

This is particularly so since she was mayor of the very municipality which had invested money into VBS. There are also questions over why she received the loan from an entity which was not even a registered financial services provider.   

In responding to the story, the minister had claimed that the loan was a purely commercial agreement which has since been repaid. However, at the time of writing, and despite the minister having appeared before a parliamentary portfolio committee, no copy of either the loan agreement or proof of the loan’s repayment has been made public.

The very perception of corruption or conflicts of interests is extremely concerning, as they undermine public confidence in our systems of government. 

On 6 September, the minister appeared before Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development. Unfortunately, Simelane’s appearance, and the information that has subsequently been revealed (or not revealed), have only made matters worse. 

The minister’s explanations did not address the concerns raised by the allegations. Indeed, they further called her judgment into question. She has been quoted as saying that she took the loan because it was difficult to obtain a loan because of high interest rates available from commercial banks, and that it was difficult to obtain a loan as a black person.  

With respect, this ‘race card’ is tired and bears the hallmarks of deflection. It also does not answer any of the concerns about the loan she eventually received at a reported 47% interest rate. 

The minister has still not made the loan agreement or proof of repayment public, or given a reasonable explanation why the repayment was delayed. The circumstances surrounding the link between the loan and the VBS funds also remain unclear. 

It is especially concerning that it appears that the loan may only have been repaid once issues with VBS became public, raising pointed questions about why the loan was not repaid sooner, and about the precise circumstances under which the loan was made. 

The questions will remain and the deep concerns about Simelane’s probity will follow her to the new ministry. 

The president has done the country a disservice by shuffling Simelane to the Human Settlements portfolio. He should have acted with conviction and relieved her of her position. It would have sent a message that he is interested in accountable governance beyond the lip service he pays to it when the moment requires. 

But, in every sense, it is vintage Ramaphosa, lily-livered when the moment presents itself and seemingly more concerned about reading the political tea-leaves within his party and defending the indefensible than properly exercising his executive authority in the best interests of the country.