Makhura must be held accountable for PPE corruption, says DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng called for Premier David Makhura to be held politically accountable for the massive looting of taxpayers’ money meant for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE).

According to the party’s Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga, Makhura should also be held accountable for failing to act decisively against the implicated officials across all the departments in the province.

“The damning [Special Investigating Unit’s] SIU’s report on PPE corruption has exposed the rotten corruption within the Gauteng government departments.

“Gauteng has the largest amount of money wasted on corruption, all of which happened under the watch of the premier who is still trying to vindicate himself while forgetting that he has a Constitutional responsibility to fight corruption in this province,” Msimanga said in a statement on Sunday.

PPE corruption scandal

SIU report

President Cyril Ramaphosa last week publicly released the SIU’s final report into the government’s procurement of goods, works and services associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 737-page report showed how government officials and suppliers treated R145 billion worth of Covid-19 relief funds as a “get rich quick scheme”, with Gauteng province being the worst offender.

With more than R6 billion worth of contracts under investigation, the SIU’s report showed irregularities were found in 93% of the contracts in the province.

The SIU investigated 1,906 contracts in the following departments:

• Department of Education
• Department of Health
• City of Johannesburg
• Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality
• Johannesburg Property Company
• Johannesburg Social Housing Company
• South African Police Service

So far the SIU had recovered R24.6 million from dodgy contractors and R139 million worth of contracts were set aside.

READ MORE: Nomvula Mokonyane paid suppliers from personal account

DA demands

Msimanga demanded that Makhura should act against all the senior officials who were implicated in the SIU’s report, even those who had resigned from their departments.

“All those implicated must be dealt with accordingly, criminal charges must be laid against them and those [who] have illegally benefited must pay back every cent to the state coffers.

“The companies that have been implicated in this corruption must be blacklisted and penalties imposed for companies that have provided substandard supplies and have made illegal excessive profits on PPE resources,” he said.

Progress report

Additionally, the DA wanted Makhura to provide a progress report with regards to disciplinary hearings against the provincial Department of Education senior officials implicated in the PPE corruption over the R431 million spent on the decontamination of schools between June and August 2020. 

The disciplinary hearings, which started on 9 November 2021, were apparently ongoing and postponed to early this year.

“Premier Makhura must also be held politically accountable for failing on his oversight duties to ensure that PPE funds are spent wisely for the benefit of the Gauteng residents.

“We will be using all mechanisms at the legislature to ensure that Premier Makhura accounts for this PPE corruption,” Msimanga said.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe. Additional reporting by Narissa Subramoney

NOW READ: Covid-19 relief funds treated as a ‘get rich quick scheme’