NATIONAL NEWS - The Special Tribunal is set to hear a review application this month regarding the controversial Digital Vibes’ R150 million contract awarded by the Department of Health.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday to give an update on its personal protective equipment (PPE) tender fraud investigations.
During the meeting, the SIU revealed the Digital Vibes matter had been set down for a hearing at the Special Tribunal on 16 September.
The investigating unit also wants a preservation order totalling R266 million imposed on Digital Vibes and 11 others.
“[The Digital Vibes matter] had previously been referred by the SIU and [the unit] will apply for a case management in this case on the 16th of September 2021. In this case it’s also a matter of the contract having to be set aside and damages to be claimed. You will note that there was previously a preservation order [which preserved] assets to tune of R22 million,” SIU’s chief legal counsel Jerome Wells told Scopa.
Set aside
In July, the SIU filed a 90-page affidavit to the Special Tribunal to review and set aside the multimillion-rand tender awarded to Digital Vibes, a company purportedly owned by former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s close associates Tahera Mather and Naadhira Mitha.
The affidavit was filed as part of the SIU’s bid to recover the R150 million paid to Digital Vibes.
The SIU listed 20 people – including Mkhize and his son Dedani – who received around R90 million from the contract.
The investigating unit also recommended that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) consider charging Mkhize and his son for corruption over “suspicious payments” they received from Digital Vibes.
Mkhize is accused of putting pressure on the Department of Health to hire Digital Vibes and benefiting from R6,720 in repairs to his home, which was paid for by the company.
Meanwhile, Mkhize’s son allegedly benefited to the tune of R3.8 million from the contract, which Dedani has since disputed in a lengthy Facebook post.
Irregular contract
Digital Vibes was initially contracted to handle the department’s National Health Insurance (NHI) communication work, but its scope was later expanded to include work on the department’s Covid-19 campaigns.
The work was expanded to include communications on Covid-19. The controversial communications firm scored a cool R35 million before the department approved its work.
Both the tender and the bidding process contravened the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
According to the SIU, of the R150 million paid to the company, R25 million went towards the NHI media campaign, while the remaining R125 million was paid for work on Covid-19 projects.
The SIU was then granted an order to freeze R22 million in bank accounts linked to Digital Vibes.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is still yet to release SIU’s final report into Digital Vibes to the public after receiving it in June.
Ramaphosa previously insisted that he was still studying the report and appealed for space.
This was before former Health Minister Mkhize resigned from his position early in August.
The move happened ahead of Ramaphosa’s much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle, where he announced Dr Joe Phaahla as the new minister of health.
There had been calls from opposition for Ramaphosa to get rid of Mkhize, who was on special leave after he was implicated in impropriety in the report.
