Johannesburg – It has now emerged that a day after it was reported that embattled Health Minister Zweli Mkhize may have personally benefited from the scandalous R150-million Digital Vibes contract, the department quietly issued suspension letters to four officials involved in the saga.
Sunday World can reveal that four officials were placed on precautionary suspension last Saturday, as revelations emerged of how Mkhize’s associates were irregularly awarded the lucrative contracts to do work that should be carried out by internal staff.
The four officials include Dr Anban Pillay, the department’s deputy director-general for health regulations and compliance management, and Popo Maja, chief director for communications and stakeholder management.
They are both facing disciplinary charges in connection with “certain irregularities” relating to the Digital Vibes fiasco, which has thrown the department into turmoil as the country entered the third wave of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The two bureaucrats have been given until tomorrow to submit representations on why they should not be suspended for the contract, which involved expenditure on communications on Covid-19 and the National Health Insurance.
Sunday World has seen both letters – dated Saturday May 29 – of precautionary suspension sent to Pillay and Maja by the department’s director-general last week Saturday. Buthelezi outlined eight charges to Pillay, including negligently causing the department to incur irregular expenditure, failure to disclose conflict of interest and recuse himself from the procurement process in the appointment of Digital Vibes, and the failure to take effective and appropriate steps to prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
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The charges emanate from an internal probe conducted by Ngubane Management Company.
“Your name has been referred to in the Ngubane report, which alleges certain irregularities on your part and recommends disciplinary proceedings to be taken. The allegations against you are of a serious nature,” Buthelezi told Pillay.
Maja is also facing charges related to causing the department to incur irregular expenditure and failing to disclose a conflict of interest.
“We are reviewing the Ngubane report and conducting further investigations in relation to its contents, and the allegations contained therein… For this reason, we intend placing you on precautionary suspension, on full pay, pending the finalisation of the investigation and any disciplinary proceedings that may follow,” Buthelezi said to Maja.
A day earlier, Daily Maverick reported that Digital Vibes, owned by two of Mkhize’s close associates, settled invoices for maintenance work at the minister’s property in the upmarket suburb of Bryanston, and also transferred at least R300 000 to a company owned by his son, Dedani, in 2020, while getting paid by the department.
Sources in the department said the four officials – including a junior employee in the supply chain of the department – were being made scapegoats of the saga to create the impression that only staff members were involved and not politicians.
“Officials are being thrown under the bus; they are sacrificial lambs,” a source in the department said.
Maja said: “I will not be able to comment on this issue because it is under investigation”.
The Digital Vibes saga has cornered President Cyril Ramaphosa as calls intensified for Mkhize to be fired in what is seen as the president’s litmus test in dealing with corruption.
Mkhize on Friday failed to appear before parliament, saying he had been advised not to do so as he would implicate himself.
The opposition has called on Ramaphosa to sack Mkhize, with the DA laying criminal charges in connection with the violation of the Public Finance Management Act.
The ANC’s integrity commission has also summoned him to appear before it on the Digital Vibes matter.
But by late Saturday, it did not look like Mkhize was about to fall on his sword or be recalled by the president, who said this week he was waiting for the outcomes of the SIU probe to make a decision.
A source close to Ramaphosa said the president was not going to target any minister when a Cabinet reshuffle was imminent, and Mkhize was preparing a response. Ramaphosa was also weary of pushing Mkhize into the faction led by the party’s suspended general secretary Ace Magashule.
Additionally, speculation was swelling as to who would replace Mkhize if the reshuffle took place, and the names of por tfolio chairperson Sibongeseni Dhlomo and former Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa are being touted.
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