Johannesburg – The Department of Health has made a sudden U-turn, abruptly abandoning the planned disciplinary process against officials allegedly implicated in the controversial multimillion-rand Digital Vibes contract, which was awarded to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s associates.
The planned disciplinary process appears to have collapsed for fear that it may backfire against the department as the officials are understood to have been ready “to spill the beans” on the scandal.
Sunday World has it on good authority that the department has stopped the process to suspend Dr Anban Pillay, the department’s deputy director-general for health regulations and compliance management and Popo Maja, who is chief director for communications and stakeholder management.
Read more: Mkhize suspends top officials following Digital Vibes contract scandal
Last week, Sunday World reported that four officials – including Pillay and Maja – were given notices of precautionary suspension on May 29, in what was said to be an attempt by the leadership of the department to make them the “fall guys”. Pillay and Maja were supposed to submit representations by Monday on why they should not be suspended.
But the department’s director-general, Sandile Buthelezi, has made a rapid U-turn in a move that has raised eyebrows and set tongues wagging within the Health Department.
In his correspondence to the affected officials, Buthelezi had said both officials were facing allegations of a serious nature, which related to the transgression of the Public Finance Management Act.
“They issued the intentions to suspend too early. It has backfired,” a source in the department said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The notice to suspend made a lot of people angry. The precautionary suspensions might have contributed to the minister also taking special leave,” the source added.
While Maja and Pillay were still expected to make the presentations, Buthelezi took the department’s staff by surprise as he allegedly posted on the department’s management WhatsApp group that there were no suspended officials and that the department would await the outcome of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into the matter.
The letters of notice of suspensions issued to the two flowed from a report of an internal investigation by Ngubane Management Company, which found that the Digital Vibes contract – which was initially set up to render communication services to the National Health Insurance, before it was later extended to include Covid- 19 – was irregular and recommended disciplinary steps be taken.
Pillay, Sunday World understands, was already prepared to spill the beans and had already spoken to his lawyer. Pillay was the acting director-general between November 2019 and May 2020 – the period when Digital Vibes was appointed and several payments were made.
Mkhize has been at the centre of the scandal as he is accused of conflict of interest after Daily Maverick reported that Digital Vibes, owned by two of his close associates, settled invoices for maintenance work at the minister’s property in the upmarket suburb of Bryanston.
It also transferred at least R300 000 to a company owned by his son Dedani in 2020 while getting paid by the department.
Mkhize had denied personally benefitting from the contract. Buthelezi, who on Friday told SABC’s Morning Live that there were no suspensions at the department, did not answer specific questions on Pillay and Maja.
“The National Department of Health is currently implementing the recommendations of the investigation report, which includes instituting consequence management processes. The department is also awaiting the SIU report findings, which will also be taken into account in the finalisation of consequence management processes,” he said.
Have you read: Conscience of a Centrist: Ramaphosa drops ball on tourism
“At this stage, the department does not wish to compromise any of the processes that are underway and those that may be implemented in future by divulging the identity of implicated individuals,” he said.
Maja said he could not comment as the matter was still under investigation.
The saga triggered President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Tuesday that Mkhize had been placed on special leave following his own request.
The matter was also mooted at the ANC national working committee (NWC) meeting on Monday where the majority of the committee’s members pushed for Mkhize to be placed on a leave of absence.
“All we were saying was that it is the image of the ANC that was suffering because of the corruption allegations. Wherever he goes, he is not going to run away from the allegations, despite the good work he has done [dealing with Covid-19],’ an NWC member said. Mkhize is also set to appear before the party’s integrity commission, after party elders, who are responsible for the commission, summoned him over the fiasco.
In his letter to the commission’s chairperson George Mashamba, Mkhize said he was mindful of his obligation to explain himself to the commission regarding the saga as an ANC member.
“I wish to advise the commission that I have thus had briefings with the president [Ramaphosa] to ensure that he is kept abreast at an official level of government.
“I have also confirmed my commitment to co-operate with the SIU as they continue to investigate these matters,” he said, adding that he was looking at “specific matters” related to the allegations. A source close to Ramaphosa said they were banking on the SIU not coming hard on Mkhize. The president’s camp was supporting a campaign to elect Mkhize as deputy president at the party’s conference next year. Mkhize was crisscrossing his home province, KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC’s largest province, as part of his plan to ward off the scandal.
You may also be interested in: The ANC falters because it doesn’t take morality and ethics seriously
ANC KZN spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said: “Comrade Zweli Mkhize is our deployee, so he did have a meeting with the provincial secretary and chairperson. The meeting was for him to brief the leadership on issues surrounding his suspension,” said Ntombela.
Also read: Friends & Foes: Gupta extradition to give SA closure
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
