21 June 2018, Johannesburg: SECTION27, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Corruption Watch are today making public a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report that documents widespread corruption and gross financial misconduct totalling some R1,2 billion in the Gauteng Department of Health (GDH) in the period 2006-2010.
This SIU investigation was authorised by a presidential proclamation issued in 2010. The report was eventually handed to President Zuma in March 2017, a full seven years after it was commissioned. Following a Promotion of Access to Information Act request, the Presidency released the report to SECTION27 in May 2018.
David Lewis, executive director of Corruption Watch, commented: “We find it frustrating that it took the SIU seven years to complete this investigation, despite the media having documented, as early as 2014, many of the most serious allegations and evidence of corruption traversed. This has abetted the extraordinary impunity enjoyed by major alleged perpetrators, at least one of whom, Brian Hlongwa, the former MEC for Health in the Gauteng government and now the ANC chief whip in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, continues to occupy high political office.”
The financial misconduct is essentially rooted in the procurement of goods and services by the department, much of which benefitted particular private sector entities and the public sector officials who colluded with them. In addition to Hlongwa, the malfeasant conduct documented in the report implicates at least 10 former senior officials in the department, some of whom were ligh3c70e8e5749dacc6d=admin|1568964698|fK6UaGLIWZlearQ1IkO6tstu1VQnIXqEb05PeknYruS|c67434ead647f6050bc7724391598ed56a2b6d41fcf7b6037364cfb7c68087c8; wp-settings-1=template_window_vcUIPanelWidth=1139&template_window_vcUIPanelLeft=105px&template_window_vcUIPanelTop=74px&editor=tinymce&edit_element_vcUIPanelWidth=845&edit_element_vcUIPanelLeft=130px&edit_element_vcUIPanelTop=54px&libraryContent=browse&hidetb=1&imgsize=large&posts_list_mode=list&post_dfw=off&adv ף?s >
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