Pretoria - Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi has confirmed that ANC bigwig in Ekurhuleni, Sello Sekhokho, scored R14.5 million in 55 contracts from Tembisa Hospital in the past three years.
Mokgethi made the admission in her written reply to questions asked by the DA’s spokesperson on health, Jack Bloom, in the Gauteng provincial legislature.
Bloom asked Mokgethi to give a detailed account of payments made to Kaizen Projects, Nokokhokho, and Bollanoto Security by Tembisa Hospital from 2019 to 2021.
She said Sekhokho was selling cleaning material, protective clothing, medical consumables, office supplies and groceries.
Sekhokho is the treasurer-general of the ANC’s Ekurhuleni region. His three companies – Kaizen Projects, Nokokhokho Medical Supplies and Bollanoto Security – got R2.8 million in contracts in 2019, R4.2 million in 2020, and a whopping R7.5 million last year when Dr Ashley Mthunzi took over as hospital CEO.
Mthunzi is now suspended by the department after an investigation revealed that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran had flagged R850 million worth of contracts at the hospital as “possibly fraudulent”.
Bloom said it was strange that Sekhokho’s companies sold such a variety of goods to the hospital, including cleaning material, office supplies and even groceries.
Some of the medical equipment he sold to the hospital was “grossly overpriced”, Bloom said, and “it is suspicious that all the payments were less than R500 000, which means they don’t go out on tender and are signed off by the hospital CEO”.
Mokgethi said the “current management at Tembisa Hospital is not aware of any irregularities with regards to these companies”.
“The department, through its risk management, will conduct an audit on payments made at the facility. This will provide evidence of transactions that may require forensic investigation, should there be evidence enough to link up officials who may have conducted irregularities. The process of conducting forensic investigation is centralised in the office of the premier,” she added.
Bloom said: “Sekhoko has scored massively over the years from contracts with just one hospital. I have asked follow-up questions about how much his companies got from other hospitals as well. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
“I suspect there are rackets in all the hospitals with collusion by corrupt officials – often deployed ANC cadres. Other ANC bigwigs use fronts to siphon off huge amounts of money to fund lavish lifestyles and win positions at ANC conferences.”
Bloom said all this happens while patients suffer as hospitals waste money on overpriced goods instead of spending on essentials to provide quality treatment. “It’s a heinous crime to steal from sick and poor people, but this is effectively what is happening. I wonder how they sleep at night?
“The ANC is in the dock and cannot sidestep responsibility for the systemic looting that costs lives in our public hospitals.
“After eight years of promises, this is Premier David Makhura’s biggest failure, but it won’t change after he leaves because only a non-ANC provincial government can fix it,” he said.
Pretoria News