VBS: Hawks raid Polokwane Municipality, seize evidence linked to Justice Minister Thembi Simelane’s coffee shop ‘loan’

The Hawks executed a search and seizure warrant on Thembi Simelane’s former personal assistant based at Polokwane Municipality last week to secure possible evidence of corruption linked to the municipality’s R349 million investment with VBS Mutual Bank in 2016 and 2017. 

Justice minister Thembi Simelane, the mayor of the municipality between 2014 and 2021, became an ultimate beneficiary of VBS-loot when she received a dubious R575 600 “loan” from a VBS fixer to buy a coffee shop in Sandton.

This transaction forms part of the Hawks investigation. 

Daily Maverick and News24 have seen a copy of the warrant dated 29 August 2024, including a copy of the affidavit filed by Colonel Anton White of the Hawks in Limpopo in support of the warrant. 

The warrant reveals that a case regarding the R349 million Polokwane Municipality invested with VBS between 2016 and 2017 was registered in November 2019. Investigations focused on a possible violation of the Municipal Financial Management Act, possible corruption, and possible money laundering in contravention of the Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: VBS scandal archive 

So far, VBS fixer Ralliom Razwinane, owner of Gundo Wealth Solutions which paid for Simelane’s coffee shop has been arrested. He stands trial on 13 counts of corruption as part of the main criminal case around the R2-billion theft that collapsed the bank in early 2018. He was charged with two offences specifically linked to commissions paid to his company, Gundo Wealth Solutions by VBS in exchange for securing investments from the Polokwane Municipality. 

Prosecutors have labelled the Polokwane kickback payments corrupt, according to an indictment handed up to the high court. 

The warrant was obtained in secret to prevent possible suspects from being alerted to the investigation. In the meantime, it leaked and now circulates in political circles in Polokwane. 

The Hawks, officially known as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, quietly visited the municipal officers on Burger Street on Friday, 30 August 2024 according to two sources with direct knowledge of events at the municipality on the day. 



The warrant demanded that the former personal assistant hand over cellphones, a laptop or laptops, documents and passwords to their private email accounts. 

“It has been established through investigations and analyses of computers previously seized from the municipality, that emails were sent to …relating to VBS. By virtue of [their] post, [they] will be in possession of said emails and documents relating to VBS. From the same devices it was found that WhatsApp messages were sent to [their] cellphone,” White stated in motivation for the warrant. 

In his affidavit in support of the warrant, White reveals that WhatsApp texts were sent to the personal assistant “relating to VBS, Gundo and Razwinane”. He argued that the personal assistant was central to “the flow of communication between municipal officials, Gundo and Razwinane”.

The personal assistant is not being named as it appears they are not a target of the criminal investigation but were merely the functionary whom the Hawks believe has access to the information they need.

Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo was asked on Wednesday to confirm the execution of the warrant but had yet to respond at the time of publication. 

The nature of the documents sought by the Hawks places not only Gundo’s interactions with the municipality under the microscope but will also lead to evidence around the coffee shop transaction and possible communication between Razwinane and Simelane.

The search and seizure application was initiated three days after Daily Maverick and News 24 revealed the existence of Simelane’s suspect ‘loan’ from Gundo to purchase the coffee shop located at Fredman Towers in Sandton, Johannesburg. 

A joint investigation by the publications based on banking records, unpublished forensic reports, the VBS indictment and sources revealed that the ‘loan’ was paid from Gundo’s own VBS account to Ricovert, the company that sold the business to Simelane.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-06-simelanes-coffee-shop-fixers-sole-loan-in-2016-was-paid-with-corrupt-vbs-kickback-cash/

It is unclear why Gundo paid the money directly to Ricovert, and this is among several questions the journalists asked Simelane, which she failed to answer.   

Simelane’s version of taking out a “commercial loan” from Gundo is questionable for a number of reasons: 

•  She received the sole loan issued by Razwinane that year.


• Gundo was also a service provider to Polokwane Municipality while Simelane was the mayor.


• The “loan” was then paid out in two transactions days after the municipality made two large investments in VBS totalling R130-million, with more to come.