Days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to give South Africa billions to help deal with the consequences of the pandemic, on condition the money was properly and openly accounted for, embarrassment has been mounting for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over the questionable circumstances of a multi-million rand tender in Gauteng.
This, as tens of thousands of businesses and millions of South Africans are struggling to make ends meet in the teeth of lockdown restrictions that have devastated the economy.
At issue is a R125-million personal protective equipment tender awarded by Gauteng Health to the Amabhaca King Madzikane II Diko. The king, who is married to ANC provincial executive committee member and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko, gained the tender from the department headed by family friend, Health MEC Bandile Masuku.
Both Diko and Masuku have taken special leave. Masuku has been temporarily replaced by Jacob Mamabolo, the province’s MEC for transport, pending an investigation.
The ANC’s woes escalated yesterday when the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) announced it intended to launch its own investigation into claims levelled against the Gauteng administration. The SAHRC’s Gauteng manager, Buang Jones, said the commission would investigate the Gauteng government’s response to Covid-19 from the start.
He said: ‘The commission’s probe will look from when government started their response to Covid-19. We will be looking at alleged procurement irregularities through the human rights lens. We will also be looking at the impact of public procurement and alleged irregularities on the right to health.’
It was reported that the ANC in Gauteng had asked its provincial leadership to give an account to the province’s residents of how Covid-19 tenders were procured.
Quick off the mark, the Democratic Alliance government in the Western Cape announced it had published its first ‘Procurement Disclosure Report’ which ‘details all personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement and expenditure in the Western Cape in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in a regular and standardised report that will be made available on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis to the public’.
It said the first report covered spending by all departments between 1 April and 30 June, and that for every transaction, details were provided on the name of the supplier, a description of the item, the unit price per item and the total spent.
In other news, Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane announced that the curfew was being shortened; it would now run from 10pm – instead of 9pm – to make it easier for restaurants to function.
The government also announced that leisure travel accommodation would be allowed within provinces. Currently, hotels, guest houses and lodges are only allowed to accommodate business travellers. Only two people per room – except for ‘nuclear families’ (parents and their children) – would be allowed.
People would not be allowed to go on holiday across provincial boundaries.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in court papers the government would re-evaluate the alcohol ban regularly with a view to limiting the economic impact on the industry. This is contained in papers filed in response to a court challenge by wine farmers.
Dlamini-Zuma said: ‘It is contemplated that the suspension of the sale of liquor will be re-evaluated with regularity as government aims to also limit hardships facing the economy and individual livelihoods during this period. There is no desire on the part of government to leave this prohibition in place for longer that it is regarded necessary.’
The wine farmers argued that the ‘commercial impact of Covid-19 is far less on the liquor industry than on local wine, of which the financial [success] depends on South Africa sales. The wine farm industry cannot survive the devastating impact of a total ban on local wine sales for four to six months’.
Positive cases grew in South Africa yesterday by 11 046 to a cumulative total of 482 169 (with 309 601 recoveries). Deaths rose by 315 to 7 812.
The highest tally of cases is in Gauteng (171 574), followed by the Western Cape (94 440), the Eastern Cape (77 055) and KwaZulu-Natal (73 919).
In other virus-related news
- The economy of the United States (US) shrank by a 32.9% annual rate in the April-to-June quarter in the wake of cutbacks in spending during the pandemic, the deepest decline since the government began keeping records in 1947 and three times more severe than the prior record of 10% set in 1958. The IMF has predicted that global growth will fall by 4.9% this year;
- There are now more than 17 million confirmed cases and 667 000 reported deaths worldwide;
- New York, for months the epicentre of infections in the US, has been overtaken by Texas, with more than 418 000 total cases, compared to New York’s more than 413 000, according to Johns Hopkins University. With almost 485 000 cases, California is still leading in total cases. Overall, the US has recorded over 4.4 million cases and 150 716 deaths; and
- Brazil now has more than 2.5 million confirmed cases and has reported more than 90 000 deaths. Only the US has more cases than Brazil.