Ex-health minister takes on SIU to save his political career

● Former health minister Zweli Mkhize, apparently eyeing election to the ANC presidency, is pinning his hopes on being able to refute the damning Digital Vibes report that cost him his cabinet job.

In an interview at his home in KwaZuluNatal

this week, Mkhize, insisting he did nothing wrong, took issue with the report by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) that implicated him and family members in the Digital Vibes scandal.

In October last year Mkhize applied for a review of the findings in the Pretoria high court, and filed a supplementary affidavit this week. The SIU is expected to file its own affidavit within 30 days.

The SIU report last year found that Mkhize may have contravened the Public Finance Management Act and referred him and his son Dedani to the National Prosecuting Authority. It also recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa take “executive action” against him.

The allegations against Mkhize included that he may have influenced the decision to award a R150m tender to communications company Digital Vibes — a company owned by his associate Tehera Mather — and that some of the proceeds of the contract were paid into Dedani’s bank account.

Mkhize, who resigned as minister in August last year, accused SIU investigators of ignoring evidence he presented to them that he said could have led them to reach a different conclusion.

He said the SIU had relied heavily on the evidence of former national department of health director-general Precious Matsoso, but she had been contradicted by other witnesses, including his former chief of staff Ntombifuthi Ndlovu and former health department head of communication Popo Maja.

Maja, in one of his affidavits, said it was Matsoso who introduced department officials to Mather. He also alleges that the SIU tried to coerce him to change his version and implicate the minister.

Mkhize told the Sunday Times he was not surprised Matsoso had implicated him because they had had a tense relationship even before he became health minister.

In its report, the SIU cited a text Mkhize sent to Matsoso that it said showed he had

an interest in the awarding of the contract. The text reads: “Hi DG. Kindly sort out contractual arrangement. Please ask for preliminary NHI [national health insurance] implementation plan and draft communication plan by Friday from each individual as discussed.”

Mkhize said the message made no reference to Digital Vibes, and his interest was in making sure that the communication plan was being implemented.

“The former DG, a year before I came in, she was in the media having fought with the minister [Aaron Motsoaledi] about her unhappiness with NHI,” he said.

“There are stories where she had a lot to say against the minister on the NHI issue. I had engaged on this issue even before I became minister [of health] to say ‘why is she delaying the issues of NHI?’

“So there was the issue of the tension. There were also some other investigations around some of the work she had been involved in before I came. If she was unhappy about me, I understand.”

Matsoso said that she disputes Mkhize’s version, but did not elaborate.

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit would only respond to Mkhize in court.

Asked in the interview if he had raised a red flag about Mather’s participation in the tender, Mkhize said he had not objected to the appointment of Digital Vibes because the executive plays no role in the awarding of tenders.

“The custodian of that is the CFO, the unit manager and the DG. Whatever they decide in that process, as minister you have no say.”

The SIU report said some of the R150m paid to Mather’s company found its way to the minister’s associates and family members. But Mkhize said it was normal for ministers to discover at a later stage that someone they knew was doing business with the department they headed.

“Now in the department of health there are many people who have got contracts — some big contracts — that I would have had some experience with, either being classmates in the past or colleagues that I worked with, or friends, or people that I have associated with that I had nothing to do with their appointment.

“So it would be a mission impossible to ask about each and every one of those people.”

Asked why Digital Vibes would make payments to his family members, Mkhize said he did not want to be drawn “into the speculative area” as the issue was still under investigation.