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News24 reports that disgraced Tembisa Hospital boss Ashley Mthunzi was parachuted into his plum job despite critical red flags on his own declaration form, and the top brass of the Gauteng health department casting aside their own rules to ensure he got the job.
When he took up his post at Tembisa in April 2021, he became a key actor in a R1-billion contract extraction scheme first exposed by Babita Deokaran. He signed tainted medical supply contracts with grossly inflated prices and based on forged documents. Deokaran had been the department's chief director of financial accounting. She was assassinated three weeks after reporting her concerns that Tembisa Hospital coffers were being bled dry. A damming investigation report released by the Public Protector on Sunday has now revealed that officials, including the acting head of department (HOD), Arnold Malotana, ignored "material discrepancies" and rubberstamped Mthunzi’s appointment. Mthunzi had declared he was not a South African citizen and was staring down a misconduct investigation from his previous job. The former was a lie, while the latter turned out to be true. Investigators found that the panel which recommended that he be appointed never questioned him on these declarations and failed to conduct even the most basic of background checks, before shuffling him into the post. Mthunzi died in April this year while on suspension and while facing a marathon disciplinary inquiry on 13 charges of misconduct, which had dragged on for nearly two years. He was paid R2.5 million in salaries and benefits while the department tried to axe him and, because he died while in service, his estate is entitled to payments from the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF).
- Read the original of the extensive report in the above regard by Jeff Wicks at News24
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