The highly suspicious goings-on related to a multimillion-rand tender for oxygen plants at state hospitals has taken another turn with the reported and sudden “alleged” death of one of the central figures in the deal.
Last week MedicalBrief published details of a joint Daily Maverick-amaBhungane investigation revealing how an obscure company used allegedly fraudulent documents to win a R428m tender for installing oxygen plants at government hospitals.
The probe has uncovered numerous discrepancies in the regulatory certificate used by Bulkeng, the unknown company that somehow won the lion’s share of the project’s spend – which seemingly used an address it didn’t occupy when it submitted its bid – while an allegedly fraudulent witness signature was on one of its bid documents.
Now, muddying the waters even further, an IOL journalist recently claimed on social media that the company’s sole director, Nathi Ndlovu, was “allegedly found dead”. The post came only three days after Daily Maverick and amaBhungane met Ndlovu and his lawyers in Johannesburg.
No details could be confirmed regarding Ndlovu’s purported demise.
One of his lawyers said they had been in contact with their client’s family, but could not confirm whether the businessman had died. Asked if his firm would respond to the issues raised in this article, the attorney said they no longer held a brief for Ndlovu.
The investigation’s focus, meanwhile, remains on the tender process that preceded this.
Daily Maverick previously reported that the Independent Development Trust (IDT), acting as an implementing agent for the Department of Health (DoH), appointed Bulkeng and other private contractors to install oxygen plants at 55 hospitals countrywide.
The project’s budget, initially about R250m, has ballooned to R836m.
Bulkeng, seemingly a “ghost company” with no online presence, no offices and an elusive director, secured the largest portion of the oxygen plants roll-out.
Examination of Bulkeng’s bid submission and supporting documents raised several red flags, one being the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) certificate Bulkeng included in its application.
‘Improper’ use of SAHPRA licence
Bulkeng is not registered with the SAHPRA and seemingly used the certificate of another company without its knowledge.
The IDT has claimed that Bulkeng was in a joint venture partnership with “Brutas Atlas Copco Industrials South Africa”. This entity supposedly held the SAHPRA certificate Bulkeng would have needed for its bid.
No such company, however, has ever been registered in South Africa. It’s since been established that the IDT had somehow melded together the names of two separate companies.
The facts surrounding the SAHPRA licence appear to be thus:
Ndlovu knew his company, Bulkeng, did not have the required licence or certificate, so approached one Christo Bruwer, who owned a local company named Brutes Air Solutions.
Come July 2023, Ndlovu and Bruwer must have had a deal in place, given they attended a tender briefing session together that month. This took place at the IDT’s Pretoria offices, where the two were joined by one of Bruwer’s colleagues from Brutes Air, according to a signed attendance register.
Like Bulkeng, Brutes Air Solutions was not registered with SAHPRA, so it couldn’t lawfully distribute medical equipment.
A local subsidiary of Atlas Copco, a multinational engineering and manufacturing group, now enters the picture.
Brutes Air Solutions is a distributor for Atlas Copco in SA, with the latter holding a valid SAHPRA certificate in the name of Atlas Copco Industrial South Africa.
This was the very certificate Bulkeng had included in its bid.
However, Atlas Copco never gave anyone permission to use its licence.
“Atlas Copco was not a party to the tender process and does not know what documents the tendering parties were requested to provide. We are looking into whether there was any improper use of our licence by any party in this instance,” said Marilyn Govender, vice-president for the Atlas Copco Group in sub-Saharan Africa.
We later asked Govender whether their investigation had yielded any answers, and whether Atlas Copco would take action against Ndlovu or Bruwer if it found its licence had indeed been misappropriated.
“We decline to comment for the time being,” responded Govender.
We also asked Bruwer what role he played in sourcing Atlas Copco’s SAHPRA’s certificate.
“Only after our quote was accepted was there a request from (the) IDT – through Bulkeng – on whether the equipment/product was SAHPRA-certified, which it is, and we confirmed same as the distributor of Atlas Copco,” Bruwer wrote in an email.
But what of Govender’s assertion that Atlas Copco wasn’t aware that anyone had used their licence? Wouldn’t this potentially amount to tender fraud?
“We cannot comment on your averments as to what Atlas Copco told you but again we confirm we are a distributor of Atlas Copco and are in constant discussions with Atlas Copco on all matters as their distributor, and they have full knowledge of what we do… and what you read between the lines is denied and unsupported,” said Bruwer.
Contrary to what the IDT has stated, Bruwer denies Brutes Air Solutions was in a formal joint venture with Bulkeng.
“We confirm that Bulkeng is a customer and only a customer (and) like any other customer of Brutes, we were requested to quote on the project for Bulkeng, which we did, and which was accepted and approved. We are not and never were in a JV with Bulkeng,” Bruwer said.
The attendance register for last year’s tender briefing, however, points to a much closer relationship between Bulkeng and Brutes Air.
Bruwer and his colleague, one “A. Koekemoer”, both signed the document as supposed representatives of Bulkeng. They didn’t write their own company’s email address in the relevant box either, instead opting to include one for Bulkeng.
Asked about the briefing session, Bruwer said: “We attended the meeting as the technical support on our accepted quote for Bulkeng, and all parties were and are fully aware of who we are and the role we play. We were there for various technical presentations and everything was done with and under Brutes’ logo and we were and always are clothed with Brutes’ brandings.”
Bruwer said he did not know anything about Ndlovu’s purported death.
The IDT and the Health Department both failed to respond to queries.
“The IDT and Health will be issuing a media statement … in due course,” said IDT spokesperson Phasha Makgolane.
When no such statement was forthcoming, we followed up with Foster Mohale, spokesperson for the DoH.
“We haven’t made a decision on whether to proceed with statement or another approaches [sic]”, Mohale said in a text message.
Addressing concerns
Further red flags stem from the business address Bulkeng referenced in its bid documents and in other records related to the tender.
The documents include an offer letter to the IDT for the oxygen roll-out. This document lists Bulkeng’s address as a commercial building on Rivonia Boulevard in Johannesburg.
We visited the address and found a block named Edenburg Terraces that is now largely occupied by a private school.
On Bulkeng’s tender documents, Ndlovu claimed that his company had been located in “Block A”. In the signed offer letter, Ndlovu stated that Bulkeng had occupied unit “A2-005”, while other Bulkeng tender documents reference unit “C2-003”.
These unit numbers were, by all accounts, a thumb-suck. “One thing I can say for certain, Edenburg Terraces never had offices with the unit numbers he is claiming,” the property owner said.
In fact, the owner said that Bulkeng had never leased offices at Edenburg Terraces.
However, it seems likely that Ndlovu did, at one point, work from the building. The facilities manager recognised Ndlovu’s name and suggested that he may have been subletting from another tenant.
In any event, Ndlovu had almost certainly vacated the building by the time he signed the tender documents.
The Sparks School, now occupying the entirety of Block A, opened as a primary school in January 2022. Its high school opened in January 2023. Bulkeng’s offer letter, meanwhile, was signed in July 2023.
We sought clarity from Ndlovu regarding Bulkeng’s business premises when we met him at his attorneys’ offices. He refused to confirm where Bulkeng’s current offices were, instead undertaking to “respond in writing”.
‘Not my signature’
The signed offer letter yielded another red flag.
The document was supposedly witnessed by one Audrey Reddy. We managed to track down a businessperson who goes by that name. As it so happens, Audrey Reddy is a supplier of office equipment to the IDT.
We showed her Bulkeng’s offer letter. “Fraud”, was her response. She confirmed the witness signature did not belong to her.
We pressed Ndlovu for details surrounding the signature. Could he perhaps recall who exactly Audrey Reddy was? Could he tell us where he was when she witnessed his company’s offer letter, and could he provide her contact details?
Ndlovu refused to answer our questions, again saying he would respond in writing.
‘Allegedly dead’
Three days after our meeting with Ndlovu and his lawyers, IOL journalist Thabo Makwakwa claimed in a post on X that Ndlovu had died, but despite exhaustive efforts, we were unable to confirm this.
At the time of writing, SAPS spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo could not confirm the death either.
Meanwhile, sources familiar with the oxygen plants initiative said they weren’t sure how the project would proceed.
As things stand, Bulkeng’s involvement in the roll-out seems to be up in the air.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
‘Ghost company’ bags R428m oxygen plants tender
AG scathing about R150m health contract
Health DG probed after R500 000 bribery allegations