One insider alleged the Oscar Mabuyane grouping is hoping that the ANC will allow the affected branches to vote during the conference to boost their numbers.
Investigations into a suspicious R10-million motorcycle ambulance contract have led to accusations that Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has been protecting health MEC Sindiswa Gomba and her former head of department, Thobile Mbengashe.
A criminal case was opened with the Hawks against Gomba and Mbengashe in September last year.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) alerted Mabuyane in November regarding its alleged corruption findings against the two senior officials.
Mabuyane’s alleged protection of the two officials stems from accusations by sources close to the investigation that he allowed Mbengashe to resign from his post as head of the health department to take up a position as the premier’s special adviser.
Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, the premier’s spokesperson, refuted claims that the premier was protecting suspects of corruption, saying Mabuyane had received the SIU referrals only on 1 February and had then asked for a meeting with the Hawks’ head advocate, Andy Mothibi, which was held on 4 February.
But insiders claimed that, despite the corruption charges, Mabuyane kept Gomba in his cabinet and arranged for Mbengashe, who allegedly resigned from his health department post to avoid accountability for the motorcycle ambulance contract and protect his pension.
Mbengashe has been the head of the department since September 2013.
Sindiswa Gomba
This week Gomba dug her heels in, telling the Mail & Guardian that calls for her removal were akin to “putting the cart before the horse”, and that Mabuyane and the provincial working committee had yet to communicate with her.
Gomba added that she had previously brought herself to the ANC to discuss possible procurement fraud. But she would not say what was discussed at that meeting. “I have no appetite to discuss internal ANC matters with reporters.”
But, on Thursday Mabuyane announced that he had fired Gomba.
“I engaged Ms Gomba on the findings of the SIU report, and in light of the charges she is facing after the NPA re-enrolled the charges, I have taken a decision to relieve Ms Sindiswa Gomba of her duties as the member of the executive council for the department of health. The decision to relieve Ms Gomba of her duties as the member of the executive council will allow her time and space to attend to the case against her,” Mabuyane said in a statement.
At the heart of the matter is the health department’s motorcycle contract. Last year the department issued a R10-million tender for the supply of 100 ambulance scooters.
In July the provincial and national departments were criticised for the R10-million spend. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a written response to parliamentary questions that his department was not consulted about the procurement, which he said failed to meet the basic requirements for transporting patients.
Gomba told parliament that the purpose of the project was to widen access to primary health care and deliver chronic medicine to remote parts of the Eastern Cape. She said the issue of scooters was 90% solved and invited parliamentarians to check the books “to arrest fears of corruption and mismanagement”.
But, three weeks ago, while releasing his report on personal protection equipment procurement irregularities, the SIU’s Mothibi said the motorcycle ambulance tender was irregular and had to be stopped.
Mothibi also said that, across the country, government officials embroiled in corruption allegations related to Covid-19 procurement were resigning in numbers to protect their pensions.
The SIU was in the process of using its Special Tribunal to freeze the pensions of officials implicated in corruption during the unit’s investigation, Mothibi said.
This week, Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale confirmed that its investigators were seconded to the SIU for the unit’s Covid-19-related corruption probes. He referred all queries regarding the Eastern Cape cases to SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
Kganyago said this week that the SIU had had discussions with Mabuyane in a virtual meeting to ensure that the two referrals (Gomba and Mbengashe) were acted on.
“The meeting was followed by a letter from the premier seeking further clarity, which the SIU has since responded to. The SIU regards the engagement with the premier as part of the process to act on the two referrals.
“As part of our new strategy, we will continue to monitor the implementation of all our referrals, including [the Eastern Cape] one,” Kganyago said.
In the ambulance case, Kganyago said, the health department was interdicted from making any payments to the service provider pending a legal application to nullify the “irregular” contract.
“The cause of action [payment interdict] is based on the irregular procurement by the Eastern Cape department of health of motorcycles with a sidecar to transport patients, which resulted in a process that was not fair, competitive or cost-effective.
“The state has not suffered any loss as no money was paid to the service provider, hence there was no move on the part of the SIU to freeze pension funds of the former head of the department [Mbengashe],” Kganyago said.
The M&G sent questions to Mbengashe on Monday, but he did not respond.
Earlier in the week when the M&G sent questions to Mabuyane about the two his spokesperson Sicwetsha said that they had been in contact with the SIU and the unit could not provide answers to questions for clarity that the Premier sought.
“If you look at this timeline, you will agree that there is no truth to the claims [of corruption protection] made by your source. What this timeline shows is the premier proactively engaging the SIU on this matter because he is the one who wrote to President [Cyril Ramaphosa] to ask for investigations into all allegations made about the government’s procurement of goods and services in the province.
Sicwetsha refuted claims that Mabuyane protected Mbengashe by making him a special adviser to safeguard his pension. In his statement on Thursday Mabuyane said he had also engaged Mbengashe on the SIU findings and he now would face a disciplinary hearing.
“He will be given an opportunity to present his case, answer to the findings of the SIU regarding his actions on the procurement of the motorbikes by the department. We will wait for that process to conclude.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the ANC in the Eastern Cape, which held its provincial working committee meeting on Monday to consider the SIU reports, said in a statement that its members implicated in wrongdoing should protect the party and “step aside” from positions of authority, in line with the party’s December 2017 conference resolution.
(John McCann/M&G)
The M&G reported earlier this week that the provincial working committee advised the premier to “cut Gomba loose immediately”.
A source on the provincial committee said Mabuyane is likely to reshuffle his cabinet in the next week.
This is not Gomba’s first run-in with the law. Last week she and others were released on bail for charges related to the misuse of funds meant for Nelson Mandela’s funeral. Gomba was a deputy mayor in the Buffalo City metro at the time.
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