Simelane accuses DA of shielding man suspected of murdering her sister

CAPE TOWN - As the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday insinuated that Minister Thembi Simelane is unfit to manage a more than R30 billion Human Settlements budget, she hit back at the party, accusing it of shielding a man suspected of murdering her sister in an apartheid-era crime more than 40 years ago.

Simelane said the DA’s criminal complaint against her had not resulted in any charges, and the call for her to be fired is part of attempts to detract from the good work she’s doing.

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The former justice minister found herself in the DA’s crosshairs in 2024, following investigative media revelations that linked her to the siphoning of funds from the now-defunct VBS bank.

At a media briefing ahead of delivering the budget for the Department of Human Settlements, Simelane said that to reject the budget would be to delay even further the provision of decent homes for the millions of people living in the country’s 40,75 informal settlements.

In response to corruption allegations against her, Simelane said she won’t shirk accountability, but the DA is jumping the gun.

“Now, if an investigation is being done, and you reported the case, but you can’t wait for the investigation to be concluded, you now want other things before the investigation. I fear I’m going to disappear, honestly.”

Simelane alleged that a former DA representative was involved in her sister’s disappearance and death in the 1980s.

“In 2016, when I managed to file charges against him, it was only then that the DA suspended him. Even on my calls to the DA to get a statement of murder against my sister, they didn’t. In 2019, three years later, he died.”

Simelane also slammed the DA’s governance in the Western Cape, saying it had returned R200 million in unspent funds meant for housing.