Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize told to step down

Ramaphosa mum on growing calls for Mkhize to explain dodgy tender to pals ● Kodwa says no need to appear before integrity commission again on latest allegations at Zondo inquiry

There are growing calls for health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize to explain himself after a company allegedly run by his close associates scored a controversial multi-million rand communications tender from his department.

Civil rights and anti-corruption organisations have added their voices to calls for the minister to explain how his department gave a relatively unknown company a huge communications contract.

This came as the SA Council of Churches expressed dismay at what it termed “gross and unfathomable abuse of public funds” which made “a mockery of government communications.”

The Daily Maverick, an online newspaper, ran a series of articles on how the littleknown company, Digital Vibes was paid more than R100m for communication services, including setting up interviews for the minister and arranging press briefings.

Daily Maverick reported this week that Digital Vibes, a company apparently controlled by personal spokesperson and long-time friend of Mkhize, Tahera Mather, and his former personal assistant, Naadhira Mitha, “pocketed roughly R90m in suspicious payments emanating from a R150m Covid-19 and National Health Insurance communications contract.”

Mather and Mitha were Mkhize’s communications strategists during his bid for ANC presidency ahead of the Nasrec 2017 ANC conference.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) called on Mkhize to step down, pending the finalisation of the investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Wayne Duvenage, Outa CEO, said: “If Mkhize was good in his processes, he would volunteer to step aside or recuse himself without even been asked while the investigation is taking place and if not the president must ask him to do so.” He said the allegations were a serious concern and they hoped that the president would soon also instituted an independent inquiry.

Digital Vibes was appointed in 2019 through a closed tender to provide communication services for the government’s National Health Insurance (NHI) rollout, with the scope of the work later extended to include communications services for Covid-19, Daily Maverick reported.

Lawson Naidoo, Casac executive secretary, said in an ideal situation, parallels have to be drawn with the spokesperson of President Cyril Ramaphosa, Khusela Diko who stepped down amid the Gauteng PPE tender scandal.

“I think what we would want to see is the consistency of approach from the government in terms of how these issues are dealt with,” Naidoo said. He said even though there has not been any direct evidence linking or implicating Mkhize in the procurement processes, he expected the presidency to make “preliminary queries of their own”.

Corruption Watch director David Lewis said: “The minister has to provide an explanation for how come someone with no experience in communications got such a huge communications contract where the only possible reasons seems to be the personal connection with him.”

Chairperson of the portfolio committee on health Sibongiseni Dhlomo said he was satisfied that the matter is being investigated.

Mkhize’s spokesperson Lwazi Manzi did not reply to questions. The department issued a statement on Monday, indicating that it had deliberately chosen not to respond to media queries on the saga “out of ensuring that there is no interference with the ongoing investigations”.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) said while it did not want to preempt and make conclusions about the saga, it was concerned about the alleged looting of Covid-19 funds.

Denosa national spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo said: “As healthcare workers, we have had the worst experience of Covid-19 and corruption was at the forefront of it. It is in the interest of every healthcare worker that the investigation is done thoroughly and speeded up.”

Nehawu spokesperson Khaya Xaba said his union also wanted a speedy probe into the allegations.