DA succeeds in securing probe into SANDF’s irregular Interferon procurement

3 February 2021

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the Portfolio Committee on Defense and Military Veterans (DMV) for a thorough investigation into the irregularities around the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) procurement of dodgy Cuban medicine, Interferon.

This follows pressure by the DA, supported by the ANC, on Wednesday for an investigation to be initiated into this matter.

The SANDF’s Military Command Council (MCC) procured the Cuban drug Hebron Interferon Alpha-2B without prior approval by and registration with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). The MCC did not comply with the statutory import regulations and protocols that face the import of any medicine into South Africa. The medicine is not approved in South Africa for human application and use.

Not only is Interferon, which was intended for use during the Covid-19 pandemic by the military, not been peer-reviewed in a respected medical journal, the SANDF has also failed to maintain the cold-chain supply and ruined 40% of the procurement. This incompetence alone should have seen Minister of Defense, NosiviweMapisa-Nqakula, and SANDF Chief General Solly Shoke fired.

The DA has written a formal letter to the committee chairperson, Mr Cyril Xaba, for this investigation to commence. The chairperson has acknowledged receipt. (View the letter here).

The investigation will ascertain who made the decision to procure the Cuban medicines, who has to be held accountable and who will eventually have to lay a charge about the allegedly illegal medicine with the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Special meetings of the Committee will be held where parties involved will be asked to present findings. The Chairperson of the Committee also confirmed that no party that the DA wants to probe will be excluded from these proceedings.

This includes the MCC as well as the Minister Mapisa-Nqakula, who will have to answer to the Portfolio Committee about the millions wasted on this procurement.

There is no more running from accountability after this decision and the DA will make sure the relevant parties are brought to book.

Issued by Kobus Marais, DA Shadow Minister of Defence& Military Veterans, 3 February 2021