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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has criticised the Gauteng Health Department for dragging out chief financial officer (CFO) Lerato Madyo’s disciplinary inquiry for two years and then accepting her resignation before the matter was concluded.
Madyo, suspended in August 2022, was accused of failing to oversee and prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditures. She was facing 13 misconduct charges concerning suspicious contracts that murdered whistleblower Babita Deokoran tried to stop at the Tembisa Hospital.
DA SLAMS GAUTENG HEALTH FOR ACCEPTING LERATO MADYO’S RESIGNATION
The South African previously reported that shortly before her death, Babita Deokaran flagged possibly fraudulent contracts worth R850 million and had asked for an audit, but Madyo did not do this.
During the inquiry, Gauteng Health’s head of department, Sibongile Zungu, revealed that she wasn’t aware of any call for a probe into the fraudulent contracts at Tembisa Hospital. Surprisingly, Madyo indicated to Deokaran that she had escalated the matter and requested approval for an investigation.
A top ANC official in Gauteng, Sello Sekhokho, who was the ANC treasurer-general in Ekurhuleni at the time, was named in the corruption scandal.
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko revealed that the party bigwig had 55 contracts with Tembisa Hospital, involving his three companies.
The companies provided cleaning products, PPE, office supplies, and even groceries. Moreover, Sekhokho doubled his haul in 2021 when the late Ashley Mthunzi was appointed CEO.
All individual payments between Tembisa Hospital and Sello Sekhokho were under R500 000. This means they didn’t have to be reviewed, and Mthunzi could approve the transaction himself.
Whistleblower Babita Deokaran. Image: Facebook‘PENSION SHOULD HAVE BEEN FROZEN’
DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom said a probe by the Special Investigation Unity (SIU) revealed that the full scope of the corruption at Tembisa Hospital includes grossly overpriced contracts from shelf companies, amounting to about R3 billion syphoned off by criminal syndicates.
Bloom said he suspects that Gauteng Health deliberately delayed Lerato Madyo’s disciplinary process to protect others who were implicated.
He said the department should not have accepted her resignation before it was concluded, and her pension should have been frozen to enable recovery of money that may be proven to have been lost because of her negligence.
“An aggravating factor is that Madyo was paid more than R3 million while suspended on full pay.
“The best legacy for Babita would be a wholly reformed Gauteng Health Department where corruption is eliminated. I believe the cover-up continues at this department, and whistleblowers like Babita would again be silenced,” Bloom said.
source:Babita Deokaran: Gauteng Health’s Lerato Madyo quits as hearing stalls (thesouthafrican.com)
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