Former health minister Zweli Mkhize. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo)
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called a meeting with the ANC’s top officials, which insiders say is likely to focus on a cabinet reshuffle. Sources close to suspended Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize also told the Mail & Guardian that he had tendered his resignation on Thursday afternoon.
Office of the presidency acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale refused to comment. Efforts to reach Mkhize were unsuccessful.
Ramaphosa is said to have called the meeting of the governing party’s top six, which includes himself, for Thursday evening, sources said, in the clearest indicator yet that the president intends to make the much-anticipated cabinet changes.
Ramaphosa has been teasing a reshuffle in his cabinet for months now. In recent media engagements he indicated he was considering it.
This comes as calls for the president to reconfigure his bloated executive team have intensified since the security cluster bungled its response to the unrest that occurred in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal last month, sparked by protests against former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration for contempt of court.
In a media briefing on the outcomes of the ANC’s national working committee on Thursday, deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told the media that Ramaphosa would most likely consult the party’s top officials before making any announcements.
Ramaphosa has been without a minister in the presidency since Jackson Mthembu died because of complications related to Covid-19 earlier this year. Another minister on the ropes is finance boss Tito Mboweni, who has been at loggerheads with some members in the Ramaphosa faction of the divided ANC over the president’s economic recovery plan.
And Mkhize has been rocked by a scandal related to a contract awarded to communications firm Digital Vibes, which is being probed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Two sources close to Mkhize told the M&G that Mkhize resigned because of growing pressure from his political family in the ANC and the general public.
Mkhize was placed on special leave after a report by the Daily Maverick about his alleged involvement with a company linked to his associates that benefited from tenders. In the same month, Ramaphosa placed the health minister on special leave. The president also instructed the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe Digital Vibes.
Court papers submitted by the SIU last week detailed how Mkhize and his son Dedani directly and indirectly received gratifications from Digital Vibes.
The SIU filed the papers before the Special Tribunal, which has a statutory mandate to recover public funds syphoned from the fiscus through corruption, fraud and illicit money flows.
The papers state that the evidence against Mkhize, his son and others who directly and indirectly benefited from the Digital Vibes contracts of up to R150-million has been handed to the National Prosecuting Authority to pursue.
This is a developing story …
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