Nine officials implicated in Tembisa Hospital contracts are still at work

28 June 2023

No action has been taken against 9 officials at the Tembisa Hospital six months after a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report recommended they be disciplined for the irregular award of contracts to fraudulent companies.

This bombshell information was disclosed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to the MEC: “The Initiator of the Gauteng Treasury has been appointed to initiate the process” and they are “still awaiting the finalisation of internal processes.”

The nine officials are still at their jobs at Tembisa Hospital. This includes the Deputy Director: Supply Chain, two Financial clerks, an Admin clerk, a Food Service Manager, Assistant Manager Nursing, Chief Physiotherapist and Physiotherapist, and a Medical Officer.

I am astounded these officials were not speedily suspended and disciplined. How can they still be at their jobs earning salaries when the evidence against them is readily available in the SIU report made public in December last year?

The lack of action is utterly deplorable. It follows the one-year delay in disciplining the Tembisa Hospital CEO Dr Ashley Mthunzi who was suspended in August last year but will only face charges of corruption in August this year. This was after media investigations revealed that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran tried to stop R100 million “possibly corrupt” contracts at the hospital, and flagged other transactions worth R850 million.

The SIU found that fraudulent suppliers were irregularly appointed at the hospital, and this involved possible fraud and corruption in the supply chain process. They identified payments worth more than R1 billion to "syndicates" of business people with fake companies that grossly overcharged for products.

I suspect there is deliberate foot-dragging to protect certain ANC politicians who benefit from the massive corruption at Tembisa Hospital.

Meanwhile, patients suffer because money goes to greedy people instead of providing decent healthcare.

The DA calls for the immediate suspension of the 9 officials and swift discipline to show that maladministration will not be tolerated.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 28 June 2023