Just days before a court deadline that the Gauteng health department should either charge or reinstate suspended Tembisa Hospital CEO Ashley Mthunzi, he and chief financial officer Lerato Madyo were summoned to a hearing in Pretoria on Thursday.
Mthunzi and Madyo were suspended in August on full pay. The provincial government placed the two on precautionary suspension following allegations that more than R850 million was improperly used to pay service providers.
However, the department failed to formally charge the pair.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) also discovered that the hospital spent more than R500 000 on a dodgy tender to purchase skinny jeans.
The deal was exposed by the health department’s former chief director of financial accounting, Babita Deokaran, who was assassinated on 23 August 2021 after exposing the graft.
City Press understands that by the end of January, the department had not charged them and instead issued a notice for them to attend a disciplinary hearing on 15 February.
The hearing could not proceed because the Head of Ddepartment, Nomonde Nolutshungu, was not available allegedly due to illness. The hearing was postponed to this past Thursday. The meeting was scheduled to discuss logistics but no charges were issued.
According to government’s Senior Management Service handbook of 2003, suspended officials may take their employer to court within 90 days if no progress is made relating to their disciplinary processes.
A government insider said the two could be formally charged at the end of April. Apparently, the health department was still waiting for a proclamation by President Cyril Ramaphosa to be given to the SIU on the matter.