Alleged Tembisa Hospital corruption kingpin Stefan Govindraju scooped a R25m payday in two and a half hours using a bunch of shell companies – thanks to crooked hospital officials, who all received kickbacks and bribes, including vehicles and properties, reports News24.
Minutes of a Tembisa Hospital Quotation Adjudication Committee (QAC) meeting on 4 May 2021 show how 50 entities linked to Govindraju were approved for payment in just a single sitting.
The committee assessed 60 transactions during the meeting, each at least 60 pages of documents, meaning the fast-moving hospital staff would have had to spend half a second reading each page.
The result: companies linked to Govindraju scored orders for medical goods and equipment worth R25m by the time the meeting was over, at a rate of R500 000 every two and a half minutes.
In 2022, News24 exposed the shadowy businessman as the hidden hand behind a network of 54 shell companies.
His network was ordered, in that proxy directors would helm five companies, all formed on the same day carrying nonsensical names and using fake addresses. The list of his companies which scored big on 4 May included those with names like Fenella Frooti, Wanthe, Roguepalm and Nora Eloise.
After the identities of the proxy directors were published, all immediately resigned and ceded control to Govindraju. His takeover played out in less than 48 hours. They represented a motley coterie of his lovers, relatives, friends and co-workers.
A Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe expanded his sphere of influence to 98 fake firms in simultaneous trade with the East Rand hospital, most of which are now dormant.
The graft-busting squad is now attempting to reclaim R600m paid to these entities, part of the R2.3bn extracted from the hospital in the scheme first exposed by whistle-blower Babita Deokaran three weeks before her murder.
Hidden hand
The QAC minutes show that Tembisa Hospital’s chief supply chain management clerk, Duduzile Nobungwana, was the scribe.
Two weeks ago, the SIU secured court orders to freeze her R6.4m mansion and an interdict halting her R1.8m pension payout, after investigators traced a series of cash payments – used to buy the property – back to Govindraju.
In 2018, she had been promoted to the post of chief supply chain clerk and appointed to the vetting and quotation adjudication committees. This allowed her to advise the hospital CEO on the purchase of goods and equipment, with the QAC established to ensure suppliers were not irregularly appointed, and prices were set at fair market value.
“Nobungwana was in a unique position to influence supply chain management processes at Tembisa Hospital as well as the appointment of suppliers … she was involved… in 80% of the irregular appointments of service providers at Tembisa Hospital,” the SIU affidavit read.
“The evidence reveals she had a corrupt relationship with many of the suppliers to Tembisa Hospital who, on many occasions, paid kickbacks to her.”
The SIU also found that other members of the QAC received kickbacks or bribes via properties or vehicles from suppliers.
Govindraju told the SIU that hospital officials would fabricate and process supply chain documents for his benefit, but that his network had been taken over by corrupt officials. He admitted, however, that he paid bribes to people at the behest of Ashley Mthunzi, then-Tembisa Hospital CEO – who died in 2024 before the disciplinary action he faced could be concluded.
Nobungwana resigned in 2024 while she faced disciplinary action and a long list of misconduct charges.
Arrests not on the horizon
The Hawks registered a corruption inquiry into Tembisa Hospital procurement in 2022 and have been handed troves of documentary evidence by the SIU.
Their investigation is focused on three syndicate kingpins exposed by News24: Govindraju, Morgan Maumela and Rudolph Mazibuko.
Not one single arrest has been made in four years.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Tembisa Hospital kingpin loses more supercars
Tembisa tender tycoon now wants R1bn deal from North West
Boats, Bentleys and buildings seized in Tembisa probe asset haul
More Tembisa fraud revelations likely after audit records enforcement