Health Minister Joe Phaahla has been ordered by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to act on a report into corruption running to R1.2 billion in the North West health department.
Reports said this came after alleged attempts by the minister to conceal the widespread fraud.
News24 reports that costs were awarded against Phaahla and he had to explain by no later than yesterday what happened to an October 2020 forensic probe that unearthed large-scale graft by the North West health department.
The report found that several laws were brazenly broken when 22 companies were awarded security contracts in September 2019 to guard the province’s health facilities and offices.
The original security tender amount of R900 million ballooned to more than R1.2 billion, according to a 2020 Auditor-General report.
The judgment followed a legal challenge by Dr Buyani Makhubu, the North West health department’s former supply-chain management director, fired in July last year for allegedly participating in the corrupt contract. However, the October 2020 report found that he played no role in awarding of the tender.
Makhubu launched the application to force Phaahla to share the signed forensic report with him so that he could challenge his unfair dismissal at the CCMA.
Phaahla requested a postponement to the court application to verify the content of the October 2020 report, and to sign it. The court dismissed this application, finding that the ministry had had three years to finalise its recommendations.
Phaahla’s spokesperson, Doctor Tshwale, told News24 that the minister would ‘provide an update [on the 2020 findings] … as per the court order’.
According to the court, Phaahla ignored about seven letters from Makhubu’s lawyers requesting the signed report.
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