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The company used Mkhize’s personal assistant, Tahera Mather, as well as another close associate, Naadhira Mitha, as paid consultants.
Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize. Photo: Abigail Javier / EWN.
JOHANNESBURG – The Health Department suspended the controversial contracts awarded to the associates of Minister Zweli Mkhize.
Last month, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) said Eyewitness news which is investigating a formal complaint about the tenders awarded to the little-known communications company Digital Vibes.
the Daily maverick was the first to report that the KwaZulu-Natal company received a R82 million contract from the department for COVID-19 projects.
The company used Mkhize’s personal assistant, Tahera Mather, as well as another close associate, Naadhira Mitha, as paid consultants.
Digital Vibes also received a contract from the Cooperative Governance Department during Mkhize’s short tenure as minister in that portfolio.
the Daily maverick reports that the department head, Popo Maja, confirmed that the contract was suspended due to an ongoing investigation by a department-appointed forensic investigator.
Meanwhile, Mkhize told reporters Friday at Gray Hospital in Pietermaritzburg that he welcomes the SIU investigation.
The minister spoke at the health center where the first confirmed COVID-19 patient was treated last year.
He said taxi drivers and traditional healers will be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next month.
Opposition political parties accused him and the department of being insincere for not clarifying whether the country’s current vaccination program is a clinical trial or an official implementation plan.
But on Friday, the department revealed that the current inoculation program is technically and legally part of a study.
The minister says that the country had no choice but to follow this path.
“The only way that South Africa could get this vaccine was by registering an implementation test that does not address safety issues, it is just to see what happens after people have been vaccinated. We are doing a study to see what happens from then on. “
Mkhize called for patience among South Africans during the vaccination program.
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