Ambitious: Whether Zweli Mkhize’s career has been terminally tainted by corruption remains to be seen. Photo: Leon Sadiki/ City Press/Gallo Images
Former health minister Zweli Mkhize’s recent appearances, after his fall from grace over the R150-million Digital Vibes corruption report, have been largely limited to posters punting him as the next ANC president.
It is perhaps an apt metaphor for how disconnected from a corruption-weary society the ANC’s membership is. It is also not surprising that the party’s national share of the electoral vote plummeted to below 50% at this year’s local government vote, for the first time since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
The ANC’s apparent disconnect from reality is also a possible reason why Mkhize ignored, according to a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report, a cabinet resolution on the health department’s National Health Insurance (NHI) and the Covid-19 communications strategy to pay out R150-million to his “close associates” Tahera Mather and Naadhira Mitha.
Mather was Mkhize’s spokesperson and was part of his campaign to be elected ANC president in December 2017 at the party’s national elective conference.
Mkhize has filed a high court application to review and set aside the SIU’s findings against him, claiming in an affidavit that the unit’s conduct against him was “unlawful and unconstitutional”, and that its report accusing him of criminal conduct had “effectively ruined my reputation, my dignity and my political and professional career”.
His career seemed to be on the rise before May 2021, when the Daily Maverick broke the story of how Digital Vibes received irregular government contracts, before Mather and Mitha paid themselves, Mkhize, his family, including his son Dedani, and other close associates more than R90-million.
Mkhize was the de facto face of South Africa’s Covid-19 response from March 2020, and the qualified medical doctor was lauded for giving regular public briefings about the virus and how the public health system would be equipped to deal with the outbreak.
This public profile could have helped fulfil Mkhize’s ambition to ascend to the ANC’s, and ultimately the country’s, highest office.
Mkhize returned to South Africa from exile in 1991, when he worked for the ANC’s national health secretariat, before serving 19 years in the KwaZulu-Natal government as a member of the executive council for both health and finance and economic development, and as the province’s premier from 2009 to 2013.
Having occupied the ANC’s treasurer general position from December 2012 to December 2017, Mkhize clearly had his sights set on the top office.
Numerous ANC factional lists place Mkhize as the preferred candidate to usurp incumbent Cyril Ramaphosa at the party’s national conference in December next year. But Mkhize’s aspirations could unravel as a result of the SIU’s findings.
In its report, the SIU said Mkhize was part of a June 2019 cabinet decision that the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) would be responsible for the media rollout for the NHI campaign.
“In the circumstances, it is astonishing that the minister thereafter … allowed Digital Vibes to be appointed by the health department in respect of the NHI media campaign. In fact, it can be argued that the minister deliberately ignored a cabinet decision (of which he formed part) in this regard,” said the SIU.
The SIU added that, during the end of February 2020 and beginning of March 2020, the GCIS was again tasked with handling the Covid-19 awareness campaign, as the virus outbreak became imminent.
“Once again, it is inexplicable why the minister would have allowed the ‘extension’ of the Digital Vibes [service level agreement] with the [national health department] in respect of the NHI media campaign to include the Covid-19 media campaign. It would have been far more cost effective if the GCIS had rendered the required services.”
During a briefing to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, the SIU’s lead investigator on Digital Vibes, Johnny le Roux, detailed gross price inflation with the contract, saying: “Digital Vibes quoted R141-million and the second bidder quoted R69-million. It should be noted that Digital Vibes was R72-million (104%) more expensive than the second bidder.”
The SIU has confirmed that the Digital Vibes probe has been reopened, with the focus moving to former presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko who is being investigated for also benefiting from the Digital Vibes contract.
The initial SIU report had found that R1-million was paid into the Royal Bhaca business account of Diko’s late husband, Thandisizwe Diko. The money then allegedly made its way into Khusela Diko’s account.
It is not known when the investigation into Diko will be completed. But the SIU’s initial Digital Vibes report has seemingly confined Mkhize to making guest appearances on wish lists for party presidential hopefuls.
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