Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale will resign as executive chairperson of the Mvelaphanda Group following his appointment to Cabinet, he said on Tuesday.

"I will be departing as the chairperson of Mvelaphanda, I will not be on any boards. I just became a Minister only yesterday [Monday] afternoon so we are sitting with lawyers," Sexwale told SABC radio after being sworn in as the new Minister of Human Settlements, which replaces the former Housing portfolio.

He dismissed reports of a probe into his business interests as sensationalist.

"It sells newspapers. There's no probe that is happening. It's about the severing of ties with the office in which I had been," said Sexwale, a former Gauteng Premier and one of the richest black businesspeople in the country.

Asked if he would be relinquishing all his assets in the private sector, Sexwale replied: "No, you can't relinquish assets. I can't throw them into the sea.

"It's about operations. I cannot work in the private sector. I doesn't mean you cannot own in the private sector. I cannot work there; I'm not operational," said Sexwale.

Mvelaphanda Group has investments in construction, banking and property.