Judge Selewe Peter Mothle has made a critical correction to a judgment implicating Gauteng Premier David Makhura in involvement in a procurement scandal that has rocked the province’s response to COVID-19, making it clear that it is not the case, notes a Business Day report.
The Premier was sucked into the scandal after the former Gauteng Health CFO Kabelo Lehloenya lodged an affidavit in which she had claimed she had received contacts of suppliers via the Office of the Premier regarding procurement for personal protective equipment (PPE). Mothle then wrote in the judgment that Lehloenya “implicates the Premier, the MEC and the head of department as the officials who provided the names of individuals and entities whose bids she received”.
Makhura, who has taken a hard anti-corruption stance during his terms in office, applied to have the judgment by the Special Investigating Unit’s Special Tribunal corrected in which the Office of the Premier was conflated with the Premier.
The judgment has now been corrected to include “Office of” the Premier, as well as “office of” the MEC, to ensure that it does not simply say it was the Premier or the MEC who had personally handed over names of suppliers.
Mothle writes in the judgment that he realised on application by Makhura that by leaving out the words “the office” it was possible that the judgment may be construed to mean that the tribunal has found that it was the Premier or the MEC personally who had supplied the names.
“There is no such decision or finding made on the allegations,” Mothle said. He said the omission of the words was “unintended and it is regretted”.
[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2021-02-02-judge-corrects-judgment-to-read-makhuras-office-was-involved-in-ppe-scandal/"]Full Business Day report (Restricted access)[/link]