One arrest must follow another in fight against NC corruption
10 March 2021
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the eventual anti-corruption action taken by the Hawks today in respect of the arrest of a senior official at the Department of Health.
The DA has long voiced our concern about inherent corruption within the Northern Cape Health Department, which we have reason to believe is rotten to the core.
With a number of damning allegations having come out of the Auditor General’s report on Covid-19 related corruption, which is no doubt only the tip of the iceberg, we were gobsmacked that these cases had not been referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), as they had in other provinces.
With particular reference to the Health Department, the AG’s office found that there was no proof of delivery for Covid-19 related orders totalling R9,3 million. Random people signed on so-called deliveries, whereby Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stock was chaotically dumped and stored, ultimately making it impossible to record and account for stock received.