An internal investigation is being launched after the cancellation of a lease agreement between the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure and Medicare 24 Tshwane District – allegedly owned by controversial Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala – for a hospital facility in Pretoria West, reports IOL.
Minister Dean Macpherson said the decision to terminate the lease came after allegations raised in a parliamentary Ad hoc Committee and a media investigation.
The reports alleged that Medicare 24 Tshwane District, which originally listed Matlala as a director, “bypassed standard procurement processes to secure the lease”.
Medicare 24 Tshwane District had also previously held a R360m contract to provide health services to SAPS employees, which was later cancelled by National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola.
Macpherson said the lease agreement, entered into in December 2023, could not proceed because the hospital facility had not been declared surplus to the requirements of the SAPS.
Under the Government Immovable Asset Management Act, 2007, SAPS remains the designated user of the facility. Departmental records further indicate that SAPS continues to require the hospital for service-delivery purposes.
The formal declaration of a property as surplus is a necessary legal requirement before any lease agreement can take effect.
The Minister said the Department would now launch an extensive internal investigation to determine how the lease was authorised, and any officials implicated would be held accountable, with information relating to possible criminality being handed to law-enforcement agencies.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Outrage as Gauteng Health still uses ‘blacklisted’ firms
Bid committee member joins firm awarded top SAPS health tender