On 24 May Jack Bloom, the DA’s dogged Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, issued a press release bemoaning the fact that ‘Tembisa Hospital CEO Dr Ashley Mthunzi will only face disciplinary charges of corruption in August this year. This is a full year since he was placed on precautionary suspension after media investigations revealed that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran tried to stop “possibly corrupt” contracts worth R100 million at the hospital, and flagged other transactions worth R850 million’.
Bloom is being a tad too diplomatic. Nearly R1 billion worth of criminal gains and the assassination of Babita Deokaran are the reasons that CEO Mthunzi has been sitting at home for one year, on full salary, while he has been awaiting the convening of a disciplinary hearing by the Gauteng Department of Health.
Bloom says that according to the SIU investigation report released in December last year, Mthunzi was responsible for ‘authorising purchase order request forms which led to the irregular appointment of 13 service providers. The finding is based on the 27 payment documents received and analysed by the SIU’.
By law
By law, an employee may be suspended pending an investigation into the need for and holding of a disciplinary hearing. The suspended employee must be paid during his suspension, because an employee is presumed innocent unless and until proved otherwise.
In the private sector this traditionally happens over a period of a few days, and at worst, one or two months if the investigation is complex.
It may be pragmatic to charge an employee with a few charges, not all, on the basis that the charges can easily be proved and are sufficient, if proved, to dismiss someone.
The accused employee continues to be paid from the date of suspension until dismissal. An entry level hospital administration chief executive officer (1 to 3 years’ experience) earns an average salary of R2,012,703. A senior level hospital administrator chief executive officer (8+ years’ experience) earns an average salary of R5,508,098.
A disciplinary hearing is not a criminal trial and has no connection to any criminal charges that may be brought by the state. The two are separate and unrelated.
An important aspect of disciplinary hearings is often misunderstood. The burden of proof to establish guilt needs only to be proved on the “balance of probabilities” or, in other words, 51% evidence supports a finding of guilt. A criminal case requires proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” or, say, “99%” of evidence supporting a finding of guilty.
Do not have to wait
Employers do not have to await a criminal case result. Disciplinary hearings must be held as soon as possible. This is just as well, because we all know that the justice system works slowly. Employers usually don’t have the time or resources to carry the employee for too long. Justice delayed is justice denied. Another reason to consider is that the ongoing presence in the workplace of someone possibly guilty of misconduct may sour the atmosphere at work, or the person may tamper with evidence or witnesses.
The Chief Financial Officer of the Gauteng Health Department, Lerato Madyo, was suspended in August 2022. According to Gauteng Health MEC, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, while there are no specific charges against her at this stage, she features prominently in the allegations because she approved payments. Why are there no specific charges? If she approved payments that were clearly suspicious and she should have known that, then charge her and hold a hearing!
Babita Deokaran requested Madyo to do a forensic audit of the suspicious payments at Tembisa Hospital, but she failed to do so. So, charge her with refusal and/or deliberate or negligent failure to obey an instruction, or something to that effect.
‘Their positions are currently filled with acting people who lack authority to fix the deep rot that hinders decent care to hospital patients’, says Bloom.
Real crime
But perhaps the real crime is being committed by President Cyril Ramaphosa. He has still not issued a proclamation to expand the SIU probe into the Tembisa hospital payments.
As Bloom says: ‘the delay fuels suspicions this is because politically protected people benefit from the contracts, including Hangwani Morgan Maumela, Ramaphosa’s niece from his first marriage. Companies linked to her got R356 million from Tembisa Hospital in the last three years, as well as R22 million from Mamelodi Hospital, and R2.4 million from other hospitals.
Furthermore, the three companies owned by ANC bigwig Sello Sekhokho got R14.5 million from 55 Tembisa Hospital contracts, and R84 million from 225 contracts from other Gauteng hospitals in a three-year period.’
These revelations are breathtaking; they are emblematic of human rights abuses affecting the welfare of hospital patients on a daily basis.
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