Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane was mugged in broad daylight by two brazen men who followed her to a health centre in Pretoria about a month ago.
The unknown riff-raff pounced on Simelane when she was collecting her medication at Die Wilgers Day Care Clinic on April 30 and made away with her luxury iPhone 16 cellphone.
The robbery occurred two weeks after her PLO laptop was stolen in Cape Town, where she spends most of her time as a member of parliament.
Given that Simelane has been under attack recently, the incident has left some of her close associates concerned about her safety and questioning whether the attacks were purely criminal or a coordinated by those who planned to retrieve her personal information from the gadget and use it to soil her reputation.
A highly placed source who did not want to be named said the incident had left Simelane very upset. “Although it could be an act of criminality, we are, as her close associates, concerned that this could be part of a bigger plot to tarnish her.
“You know a cellphone contains sensitive and personal or private information. So what if this is a malicious act by those who are hoping to retrieve the information and use it to tarnish her?”
The deep throat said, despite the incident, Simelane remains unshaken and has vowed to defend her name to the hilt because she has nothing to hide.
“Although she is not worried because there is nothing compromising they could find in the cellphone, we are worried particularly about her safety because she has been under a lot of attacks recently for refusing to toe the line on certain matters,” said the associate.
The news of the robbery is corroborated by a truncated statement police filed at the Garsfontein Police Station in Pretoria on May 12.
The statement, which we have seen, stated that Simelane waltzed into the healthcare facility after 4pm in the bustling Denneboom Street to collect her medication. She started chewing the fat with another caller on her cellphone while waiting to collect her medication when two men blitzed into the centre, slid up to her, grabbed the cellphone and ran away.
“The complainant was at the above-mentioned address to pick up her medication when she was busy on a call; two unknown males approached her from behind, and one of them grabbed the complainant’s cellphone and ran away,” read the statement.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe had not responded to written questions at the time of going to print, and Simelane could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
