Embattled health minister Zweli Mkhize has been implicated in the Digital Vibes scandal through a WhatsApp he allegedly sent to a senior official in his department.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) believes it was part of pressure he exerted to ensure the company's appointment.
Messages sent to the official were forwarded to investigators by a whistleblower.
These texts include one sent three days after the department had unsuccessfully tried to appoint Tahera Mather as a communications consultant on National Health Insurance (NHI) in July 2019.
The Sunday Times cannot name the official, who is a witness in the case.
"Hi [name withheld]. Kindly sort out contractual arrangement. Please ask for preliminary NHI implementation plan and draft communication plan by Friday from each individual as discussed," Mkhize said in the text, contained in an affidavit before the Special Tribunal.
In court papers the SIU said: "This WhatsApp message appears to support the allegations that were raised by the whistleblower that the minister had a vested interest in ensuring that the contract was awarded to, or would end up benefiting, Ms Mather."
Digital Vibes, a company from which Mkhize's associates Mather and Naadhira Mitha benefited, received more than R150m from the health department.
The SIU considers these payments irregular because they flow from an irregular appointment to perform communications work for the department relating to NHI and Covid-19.
Ten days after Mkhize sent the WhatsApp, the department requested approval from the Treasury for a R133m NHI communications contract with Digital Vibes without a bidding process.
This request was rejected by the Treasury's chief procurement officer. The department was told to advertise a public tender for a shortened period of 14 days.
Instead - as the Sunday Times reported last week - the department sought proposals from a closed panel of 10 communications companies, including Digital Vibes.
The SIU could not find records showing how the 10 companies were identified and selected. It established that health department deputy director-general Anban Pillay was involved in making the decision and had given Digital Vibes' name to the department, the SIU said in court papers.
Hi. Kindly sort out contractual arrangement. Please ask for preliminary NHI implementation plan and draft communication plan by Friday from each individual as discussed
— Zweli Mkhize's text
This information forms part of a report on the Digital Vibes scandal handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa by the SIU this week.
The information was confirmed to the Sunday Times by a senior government source who knows about the investigation.
Last week the Special Tribunal issued an order freezing R22m transferred from Digital Vibes' bank account to entities that included investments firms, a law firm, Mitha and Mather, and companies belonging to Mather's two children.
The whistleblower provided key evidence to the SIU as well as further evidence that allegedly shows how processes were circumvented in 2019 to ensure Digital Vibes was appointed.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago refused to comment on the information this week. He said: "We handed the report [to President Cyril Ramaphosa] on Wednesday."
The whistleblower referred all queries to the SIU.
Since the scandal was first reported by Daily Maverick, Mkhize has asserted that his first knowledge of and involvement in the Digital Vibes contract was only after it had gone through the department's processes.
The 65-year-old minister, who is on special leave as a result of the fallout from the scandal, did not respond to requests for comment.
Last week the Sunday Times reported that Pillay was identified as "one of, if not the main, actor[s]" inside the department that acted to advance Digital Vibes' interests.
In papers before the Special Tribunal, the SIU's lead investigator said on March 6 last year that Pillay, then the acting director-general, sent Mather an e-mail from his personal Yahoo address asking her to assist the department to "urgently send messages through various media regarding Covid-19".
When Mather responded on the same day with a quote, Pillay responded: "Your proposal is approved."
The investigator wrote: "No written contract or [service-level agreement] pertaining to the provision of communication services in respect of the Covid-19 appointment was ever concluded between the [health department and] Digital Vibes. The service-level agreement of 29 November dealt only with communication in respect of the NHI contract."
Last week, Pillay confirmed he sent the e-mail to Mather after parliament's portfolio committee requested the department to urgently begin an extensive communication campaign.
Pillay said: "The contractual agreement makes provision for expansion of additional communication services. It is not true that I introduced Digital Vibes to the closed panel, nor did I introduce Ms Mather to the national department of health.
"At the time, Ms Mather was an employee of Digital Vibes, a contracted service provider to the [department], whose mandate covered communication services. The extensive communication campaign was to inform South Africans about the coronavirus and how they should protect themselves."
Digital Vibes has said that it would comment when investigations were concluded.
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