President Cyril Ramaphosa has been linked by default to the massive R859m Tembisa Hospital procurement scandal after revelations that a nephew of his by marriage – Hangwani Morgan Maumela – is a central figure in the dodgy deals first reported by Babita Deokaran before her murder.
Through a web of companies, Maumela and his cousin raked in R36m in business from the hospital within a matter of weeks, the transactions among more than 1 000 now under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
News24 reports that the businessman’s links to the Union Buildings run deeper, with ties to Ramaphosa’s right-hand man: principal political adviser Bejani Chauke. The pair are neighbours in a plush Hyde Park security complex within walking distance of Ramaphosa’s private residence.
News24 has established that Chauke and Maumela are associates, the former also being a contender for political office at the ANC’s December elective conference and who played a critical role in the CR17 campaign that saw Ramaphosa take the party’s presidency.
He is regularly despatched as a special envoy to countries like Saudi Arabia, and in political circles is referred to as the President’s “fixer”. His company, Acute Strategies, is regularly involved in election campaigns in Africa.
If Ramaphosa has to sign a proclamation setting the SIU loose on a deeper probe, the squad would probably hone in on a member of his extended family – a man who is a beneficiary of a trust boasting a R307m property portfolio.
In response to News24, Ramaphosa said he would act without fear or favour.
The family affair
Maumela’s presidential connection stretches back to Ramaphosa’s first marriage to Hope Mudau in 1978.
Her brother, Basil Mudau, is Maumela’s father. His mother, Mboneni Maumela, was a high-ranking official in the Limpopo Department of Health before her retirement last year. Morgan Maumela and Ramaphosa’s son, Andile, are cousins, born in the same year.
Earlier, Gauteng Health Department sources claimed Maumela was “the don of Tembisa”, with huge influence over management and the hospital’s procurement office.
Of the 217 Tembisa Hospital suppliers Deokaran identified as “possibly fraudulent”, 12 entities link back to the Maumela family, according to documents drawn from 60 000 Gauteng Health Department emails. In one payment run the whistle-blower examined, the network was due payments of R35 965 699.
News24 identified six individual transactions to companies in Maumela’s control worth R3m. All were valued between R491 000 and R497 000. Other sources of his considerable wealth are unclear.
Mboneni Maumela retired as director of Public Health in Limpopo last year after 17 years with the department.
Ramaphosa, through spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, distanced himself from Maumela, insisting they shared no relationship and sketched him as a distant relative.
“To the extent that Maumela is the son of the President’s ex brother-in-law, the President has no further knowledge of Maumela, nor has he ever had any relationship with him,” he said.
Magwenya added that the familial tie would be irrelevant, should the SIU approach Ramaphosa for his endorsement of a Tembisa Hospital investigation.
The Maumela network
According to companies and intellectual property information, seven of Maumela’s nine companies trading with Tembisa Hospital operate from a unit within a Sandton residential estate.
There exist links between Maumela and other suppliers in trade with Tembisa Hospital. Deokaran also flagged R5.9m in payments to a company called Barnjo Trading and Supplies, whose sole director is Tebogo Sebogodi.
The 34-year-old is also a director of two other entities, Tebogo Medical Suppliers and Atang Medical Suppliers. Both list the business address as the same unit in the Sandton estate from which the Maumela firms operate, according to the CIPC.
Sebogodi did not respond to questions, and efforts to contact her by telephone were unsuccessful. Detailed questions were put to Maumela through his attorneys.
They said: “We do not wish to compromise the integrity of any investigations that may be under way in relation to our client, nor do we intend to litigate by way of media.”
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago previously said investigators had accessed key documents as part of a secondment agreement.
This week he said there was no time frame around a request to Ramaphosa to sign a proclamation.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Tembisa Hospital audit buried for a year and recommendations ignored
ANC bigwigs score millions from Tembisa Hospital
Tembisa Hospital CFO and Gauteng Health boss suspended as SIU begins probe
Uncovering the 200 suspicious Tembisa Hospital contracts flagged by Deokaran