In a move that has put the Department of Health in a corner, and which could potentially lead to more damning revelations relating to health sector tender fraud, the Gauteng department was on Monday given 10 days to hand over payment records and Tembisa Hospital audit reports to News24 or face criminal prosecution.
The enforcement notice by the Information Regulator comes after three years of delays and obfuscation by now-sidelined Health HoD Arnold Malotana over the news outlets. The records relate to News24’s investigation into the R2.3bn graft scandal first exposed by Gauteng Health chief accountant Babita Deokaran before her murder in August 2021.
In issuing her scathing enforcement notice, Information Regulator Chair Pansy Tlakula declared Malotana’s chicanery unlawful and ordered the department to make the records available.
In 2023, News24 submitted Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) applications to compel the disclosure of a schedule of payments from a particular Gauteng hospital and a raft of audit reports focusing on other provincial health facilities.
During News24’s investigation into the Tembisa graft scandal, evidence had suggested that the syndicate involved had embedded other state hospitals.
But now the department is at an impasse, with nowhere to run.
“The information officer who fails to comply with this enforcement notice is guilty of an offence and liable upon conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years or to both such a fine and such imprisonment,” Tlakula wrote.
Not only has she ordered the department to hand over the records, she has also instructed it to provide indexes to the documents sought by News24 and, if the documents are absent, to provide substantiated explanations why, under oath.
The department has two options: either disclose the documents or take Tlakula’s order on review in the High Court to keep the records hidden.
Tlakula – concurring with the Information Regulator’s enforcement committee – found that News24 was entitled to the records and had complied with all PAIA legislation requirements.
“The department failed to comply with its constitutional duties … as it repeatedly failed to respond to the complainant’s two requests for records dated 17 July 2023, including the appeal process.”
She also found that the department had failed to honour a settlement agreement reached between News24 and Malotana in March 2025, under which records would be handed over voluntarily. The agreement was reached with Malotana in his capacity as the department’s Information Officer.
However, after News24 received the records, it became clear the department was holding back information. Unbeknown to the department, News24 already had some of the requested documents in its possession, including payment records linked to companies suspected of being involved in extraction syndicates.
In a letter to the Information Regulator attached to News24’s complaint, News24’s lawyers wrote: “The seriousness of this situation cannot be exaggerated. It now appears the department may not only have breached the terms of the settlement agreement but…may also have withheld… evidence of allegedly unlawful activity.”
Tlakula, granting access to the documents, recorded “serious doubts” as to whether the department had complied with the settlement agreement.
She also ruled that it had failed to disclose any of the audit reports it had promised to provide under the settlement certificate. These related to the audits it had promised to do after Deokaran’s assassination.
“The department blatantly disregarded the requirements of the settlement certificate and therefore acted unlawfully,” she noted.
Feeding frenzy
Deokaran was assassinated 19 days after filing a report in which she had identified “possibly fraudulent activity” at Tembisa Hospital, picking up purchase orders worth R850m in the space of four months – four times more than the hospital’s budget for medical goods and equipment.
Seven months after her killing, News24 gained access to her cellphone and her work laptop, containing 60 000 official emails. Subsequent investigations revealed three syndicate kingpins: Hangwani Maumela, Stefan Govindraju, and Rudolph Mazibuko.
A Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe then identified nine syndicates preying on Tembisa’s budget, with more than R100m in kickbacks being paid to Health department and hospital staff.
Malotana was appointed as the permanent HoD in May 2024, and placed on precautionary suspension in October last year. According to the SIU’s interim report, his lifestyle audit revealed more than R1.6m in cash deposits from commercial activities, which could be traced across various bank accounts that did not reconcile with his salary.
He was also associated with a company linked to a business providing contracted services to Tembisa, which the SIU contended raised concerns of a possible conflict of interest.
Malotana’s suspension was lifted in January, and he was shifted to a senior management post within the Gauteng Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
But while the SIU has linked more than R800m to a network of front companies and successfully frozen around R325m in assets, criminal charges against the alleged kingpins have yet to be laid, an IoL report notes.
Maumela, who is related to President Cyril Ramaphosa through a previous marriage, was identified as a central figure in this network.
The investigation revealed he used a vast network of more than 40 proxy and front companies to secure inflated contracts for medical consumables, catering and cleaning services, by bypassing standard procurement procedures.
This investigation resulted in the seizure and preservation of vast assets belonging to him, as well as multiple luxury vehicles connected to his sprawling network.
Authorities confiscated multiple luxury supercars (including Lamborghinis, a Bentley, and Aston Martins), a $1.9m boat, and sprawling mansions in Sandton, Bantry Bay, Ballito, and Pecanwood Estate.
The assets were valued at approximately R325m, within a broader R820m asset recovery drive.
Despite these raids, vehicle seizures, and the magnitude of the fraud, Maumela has yet to be criminally charged or arrested.
SIU spokesperson Selby Makgotho said that while the Hawks are probing Maumela’s involvement in the massive Tembisa Hospital tender fraud, no docket has been formally handed over to issue an arrest warrant.
He said that meanwhile, the SIU has been engaging with the Gauteng Department of Health regarding blacklisting of the companies involved.
This also comes after the unit recently secured Special Tribunal orders to seize a R3m Bentley and arrest a Mpumalanga dealership owner for defying preservation orders.
Despite preservation orders in place since late 2025 aimed at stopping the dissipation of assets, the dealership Omar Motor Den and its owner, Yusuf Omar, admitted to selling the R3m Bentley linked to Maumela.
The owner of the dealership has been directed to appear before the Special Tribunal to account for selling a restrained asset.
NPA spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit has received the referral from the SIU and is currently assessing the available evidence, adding that this will be followed by a determination on whether to prosecute the officials of Tembisa Hospital, once all investigations have been finalised.
“It is important to note that the burden of proof applicable to civil proceedings for asset recovery differs from that required in criminal prosecutions. While criminal prosecutions require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, civil asset recovery proceedings are determined on a balance of probabilities,” he said.
Kganyago added that all individuals implicated in the matter, irrespective of their social standing or political affiliation, will be subjected to investigation.
Political analyst Zakhele Ndlovu said the lack of arrests around the Tembisa looting sends a message that some people are above the law, adding that this could fuel speculation that the transfer of the National Director of Public Prosecutions Andy Mothibi, from the SIU to the NPA, was a strategic move.
“Last year, Advocate Mothibi promised that the SIU was nearing its investigation. He is now with the NPA and still nothing is happening. The wheels of justice are moving very slowly here. Some may start saying that the transfer of Mothibi from the SIU to the NPA was a strategic move by Ramaphosa to shield his nephew,” he said, adding that it is clear that the state is struggling to construct a “watertight” case against politically connected individuals.
IoL – Tembisa scandal: Despite raids, vehicle seizures and links to R800m fraud, Hangwani Maumela yet to be charged (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SIU net closes in on ‘Syndicate X’ in Tembisa Hospital probe
Tembisa Hospital ‘kingpin’ nailed by SARS on tax charges
Three companies score R100m contracts, latest Tembisa exposé shows