A senior health official who blew the whistle on alleged corruption – implicating DG Sandile Buthelezi in a bribe of R500 000 – requested Hawks protection to attend a disciplinary hearing he claimed was retaliation for his accusations.
However, the elite crime-busting Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation unit has now been accused of harassment in the case, which has since been referred to Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi for intervention, reports TimesLIVE.
The senior official, who apparently fears for his life, asked for protection from the Hawks in the hopes of convincing the hearing’s chair that the department was subjecting him to the process because he blew the whistle on the alleged bribe received by Buthelezi from a service provider.
The hearing’s chair agreed to move the hearing to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) under section 188(a) of the Labour Relations Act, which allows for hearings to be heard by a third party if the employee alleges the hearing is in contravention of the Protected Disclosures Act.
The decision came after one of the Hawks investigators accompanying the official addressed the hearing with the recorder switched off.
The decision left the department’s officials leading the charge against the employee aggrieved at what they viewed as harassment by the Hawks. They asked Motsoaledi to intervene.
“Besides the unprofessional conduct of the chair of the disciplinary committee, which will be challenged through formal processes, the police officer’s conduct amounts to interference with the NDoH’s right to institute discipline,” said Dr Percy Mahlathi, the department’s acting deputy director-general for corporate services, in a memo to Motsoaledi.
“This will also have the effect of intimidating witnesses in the case against (the official).”
The Sunday Times understands that at the hearing, the Hawks member told the inquiry the official was a complainant and witness to alleged procurement corruption, whose investigation would soon lead to the arrest of Buthelezi and other senior officials.
In February, as part of the investigation, the Hawks had also executed a search and seizure operation on Buthelezi and two other senior officials, confiscating their electronic devices. The other officials’ devices were returned, while Buthelezi’s were kept for further investigation.
Later that month, Buthelezi had the seizure temporarily set aside by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) after it emerged the Hawks had said the investigation was linked to an investigation into the Digital Vibes corruption scandal involving former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.
Buthelezi was not DG at the time of Digital Vibes.
The matter is still meant to sit for a full hearing and final decision, but meanwhile, the Hawks have been ordered to seal the device and not use any information taken from it.
Interference
The official was placed on suspension in May and charged with two counts related to alleged interference with procurement processes on two projects – the roll-out of PSA oxygen plants at 50 hospitals and the refurbishment of the OR Tambo Memorial Hospital after the 2022 gas tanker explosion – run by the Independent Development Trust (IDT).
He was also charged with failing to disclose, at the time of his appointment in 2021, that his secondment to the Department of Public Works was terminated after it was found he used the Ministry’s stationery to issue unauthorised instructions.
The charges relate to emails sent to the IDT, the government’s implementing agent on state infrastructure.
In one mail he instructed that the procurement process be restarted because of “scope creep” that exceeded 50%. The Sunday Times understands that another of his concerns related to the same project – that contractors were required to have a South African Health Regulation Authority certification, and that this was changed to US-based Food and Drug Administration certification.
Court papers filed by the Hawks regarding Buthelezi’s application to have the warrant set aside show that the unit believed he used his private cellphone, allegedly registered in the name of a foreign national with a fictitious address, for corrupt and fraudulent activities with Digital Vibes and other service providers.
Hawks official Clinton Arrikum said that although Buthelezi argued that an internal disciplinary hearing had cleared him of wrongdoing in the Digital Vibes matter and that he played no role in the award of the initial contract, he did play a role in the extension of the contract and that he allowed payments to be made to Digital Vibes.
“The critical issue is that we had information that he was using this number, which was not known to anyone but his selected people, to communicate his alleged corrupt activities relating to the service providers of the NDoH, including Digital Vibes,” Arrikum said.
In his answering affidavit, Buthelezi denied Arrikum’s allegations, saying the Hawks do not explain how his cellphone number was allegedly used in corruption or fraud. “The application does not comply with the requirements as set out by the law,” he said.
Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said Motsoaledi was informed by the Hawks about “pending investigations”, but cannot comment until he was fully briefed.
At the same time the official and the Hawks were making their case at the hearing, the department’s main witness, Mbuso Mahlangu, was summoned by the head of the Hawks’ serious corruption unit, Brigadier Zama Basi, to appear to answer questions, but in a report, said he left without testifying.
In a report to the department, he said he had indicated he was “not comfortable divulging department information because I have to abide by the code of conduct … I said they need to write to the accounting officer …so that he can grant me access to share the information”.
TimesLIVE article – Hawks swoop to shield health department 'whistleblower' (Restricted access)
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Digital Vibes: Health DG Sandile Buthelezi also suspended – more to come?
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