Tick-box exercise as minister appears before integrity panel

Justice minister Thembi Simelane

While justice minister Thembi Simelane is expected to appear before the ANC integrity commission today (September 25) to explain herself regarding a loan she received from a company implicated in the systemic looting of the VBS Mutual Bank, I won't be holding my breath that any justice would be served from what is essentially a tick-box exercise.

This is because accountability and consequence management are swear words in the South African context of politics, where the levels of impunity stink to the highest heavens.

While the former cooperative governance & traditional affairs minister has already briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa and parliament on the matter, she now has to convince the ANC's head honchos in the integrity committee that her conduct was beyond reproach.

Simelane has denied any wrongdoing, saying the loan of more than R500,000 she received from Gundo Wealth Solutions to buy a coffee shop in Sandton, Africa's richest square mile, had been paid in full.

The minister took the loan while she served as executive mayor of Polokwane local municipality in 2016. Gundo Wealth Solutions brokered investments on behalf of the mutual bank and the local council which had invested about R349m in the bank.

While opposition parties accuse her of a conflict of interest, Simelane sees absolutely nothing wrong, and insists that her relationship with the company ended in January 2021 when she paid her last instalment.

According to the Daily Maverick the company received millions in kickbacks from VBS for connecting the bank and the municipality.

Speaking of kickbacks and consequence management, Singapore's former transport minister S. Iswaran has pleaded guilty of accepting gifts from tycoons doing business with the state. The gifts included F1 tickets, business-class air tickets, a luxury Brompton bicycle, and bottles of wine and whisky.

Take note of wine and whisky - silly items any government minister could easily afford from their enviable salaries! Here in South Africa, former Gauteng premier and erstwhile environmental minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, allegedly received from Bosasa 120 cases of cold drink, four cases of whisky, 40 cases of beer, 12 cases of frozen chicken and 200kg of beef - every single year for her family's Christmas needs.

As expected, Mokonyane denied the allegations, telling the state capture commission: "I don't have the capacity to store these volumes that Mr Agrizzi is referring to. I have never benefited nor received any goods to the benefit of my family." Bosasa was a logistics company that scored questionable government contracts worth billions of rands.

The state capture commission was set up by former president Jacob Zuma to investigate allegations of state capture and corruption in the public sector - which cost the country about R500bn - including the role of the infamous Gupta family.

In its final report in 2022, the commission chaired by former chief justice Raymond Zondo, found that Bosasa did in fact bribe politicians and government officials, but the allegations against Mokonyane and her comrades who are implicated in corruption and state capture are yet to be tested in a court of law.

Mokonyane continues to live her best life. She was elected as the ANC first deputy general secretary at the party's national congress at Nasrec in Johannesburg in 2022. So, what makes you think Simelane would be treated differently? In the end: all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.