A senior official in the national department of health (NDoH) attended a disciplinary hearing at the department’s headquarters this month under the protection of the police’s elite crime-busting outfit, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks).
Apparently fearing for his life, the official, who cannot be named for safety reasons, opted for this unorthodox approach in the hope of convincing the hearing’s chair that the department was subjecting him to the process because he blew the whistle on alleged corruption implicating director-general Sandile Buthelezi in a R500,000 bribe allegedly paid to him by a service provider.
In the end, the 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 that the hearing is in contravention of the Protected Disclosures Act.
The decision came after one of the investigators of the Hawks’ serious corruption offences unit accompanying the official addressed the hearing with the recorder switched off.
The decision left the department’s officials leading the charge against the official flummoxed and aggrieved at what they perceived as harassment by the Hawks. They asked health minister Aaron Motsoaledi to intervene.
“Besides the unprofessional conduct of the [chair of the disciplinary committee], which will be challenged through formal processes, the conduct of the police officers amounts to interference with the NDoH's right to institute discipline on its employees,” said Dr Percy Mahlathi, the department's acting deputy director-general for corporate services, in a memo to Motsoaledi sent via Buthelezi’s office.
“Their action will also have the effect of intimidating witnesses in the case against [the official].”
The Sunday Times understands that during the hearing the Hawks official informed the inquiry that 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.
The Sunday Times also learnt that, as part of the investigation, the Hawks in February executed a search and seizure operation on Buthelezi and two other senior officials and confiscated their electronic devices. The other officials’ devices were returned, while Buthelezi’s were kept for further investigation.
Later in the same month, Buthelezi managed to have the seizure temporarily set aside by the Pretoria high court after it emerged the Hawks had said the investigation was linked to an investigation into the Digital Vibes corruption scandal that claimed the scalp of 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 in the interim the Hawks have been ordered to seal the device and not use the information gleaned from it.
The critical issue at play is that we had information that the applicant was using this number, which was not known to anyone but his selected people, as a means to communicate his alleged corrupt activities in relation to the service providers of the NDoH including Digital Vibes
— Clinton Arrikum, Hawks official
The official was placed on suspension in May and charged with two counts related to alleged interference with procurement processes on two projects — the rollout 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 he was found to have used the ministry's stationery to issue instructions that were not authorised.
The charges relate to e-mails the official 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 was in excess of 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 this was changed to the US-based Food and Drug Administration certification.
Court papers filed by the Hawks with regard to Buthelezi’s application to have the warrant set aside show that the Hawks believe the director-general used his private cellphone, which is 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 states that though 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 at play is that we had information that the applicant was using this number, which was not known to anyone but his selected people, as a means to communicate his alleged corrupt activities in relation to the service providers of the NDoH including Digital Vibes,” Arrikum said.
In his answering affidavit, Buthelezi denies Arrikum’s allegations, and adds that 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 is fully briefed by them on the situation. “The department is aware of the allegations which are yet to be tested before the court of law,” he said.
Mohale added that initially the department was not aware of the Hawks' officials involvement in the case, and had to verify that they indeed came in their official capacity. “We can confirm that [the official] is currently on suspension, but we can't go into details of the suspension because the matter is before a disciplinary hearing and the involvement of law enforcement agencies.”
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, Brig Zama Basi, to appear to answer questions.
In a report to the department, Mahlangu said he left without testifying at the hearing and instead spent the entire day at the Hawks headquarters, only to be instructed to come back the next day.
“I indicated that I was not comfortable to divulge the information of the department because I have to abide by the code of conduct to discuss any information of the department with any person. I then requested that they need to write to the accounting officer and inform him with regards to the investigation so that he can grant me access to share the information,” he said.
“They even indicated that if they arrest me they will make sure that I do not get bail and we will go to court until my funds are depleted and I'm no longer [able to] afford the lawyers; then I will rot in jail. Brigadier Basi then told me that they don't have to get permission because this is a serious criminal case they are investigating.
“They even cited the case of Mr [Tshifiwa] Matodzi [former chair of VBS Mutual Bank] and told me that he was sitting in the very same chair that I was sitting, and he was stubborn like me and today he is serving a 15-year sentence.”
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