Tebogo Msimanga |
Companies linked to Hangwani Morgan Maumela, a nephew by marriage to President Cyril Ramaphosa, have scored contracts worth R381 million in the last three years from Gauteng public hospitals.
Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom said this astounding figure was revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to his questions in the Gauteng Legislature.
“I asked her about contracts awarded to 12 companies that got R36 million from Tembisa Hospital last year. Murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran had identified them as “possibly fraudulent”, as well as other suspicious payments totalling R850 million”.
According to a News24 investigation, these companies are linked to the Maumela family – Hangwani is a director of nine of these companies, while a relative heads the other three firms.
“All the contracts were under R500 000, and were therefore signed off by the Tembisa Hospital CEO instead of going out to tender”.
Bloem added that It is now revealed that the Gauteng Health Department has paid a total of R381.4 million to these 12 companies from April 2019 to date.
“Of this amount, R356 million came from Tembisa Hospital, R22 million from Mamelodi Hospital, and R2.4 million from a number of other hospitals”.
Bloem further said the SIU is already investigating the splurge of Tembisa Hospital payments last year, but needs to extend its probe to all payments made to Maumela’s fishy companies. “Ramaphosa should authorise this by proclamation if he is serious about cleaning up all corruption in the Gauteng Health Department”.
Bloem reiterated he will be writing to SAHPRA to investigate whether Maumela’s companies were legally authorised to sell medical products.
