Digital Vibes: Health official corruption case postponed
His attorney told the court that the senior communication officer was already demoted at his work because of the matter and could only afford R5 000 bail.
The case against a 63-year-old health department senior official related to Digital Vibes corruption has been postponed to July 19.
Joseph Themba Popo Maja, a communications manager in the department, appeared in Pretoria specialised commercial crimes on Wednesday, June 21 on two counts of corruption.
The case was postponed for disclosure and he was granted bail of R5 000.
The appearance comes after an Auditor-General report flagged possible overcharging by Digital Vibes regarding Covid-related communication in October 2020.
This resulted in internal and Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigations in February 2021 and subsequently the suspension of the Digital Vibes contract.
The SIU had found irregular expenditure of R150-million as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R72 million.
Other SIU findings regarding the Digital Vibe contract are as follows:
– The tender had been irregularly awarded
– Procurement procedures, National Treasury regulations and Public Finance Management Act regulations had not been followed and
– Some officials involved had had conflicts of interest.
“It is alleged that in 2019, Maja was appointed as a member of the bid specification and bid evaluation committee, which was tasked to appoint a service provider to provide communication services in relation to the National Health Insurance (NHI) bill,” said NPA regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.
Mahanjana said the NPA alleged that in November 2019, committee members following their evaluation of bidders for functional and technical expertise recommended that Digital Vibes be awarded the contract valued at more than R141-million for 12 months.
“The same day the committee sat, it is alleged that an amount of R10 000 was paid into Maja’s personal bank account, from the Digital Vibes bank account. A month later in December 2019, an amount of R 5 000 was paid again to his personal account by Digital Vibes,” she said.
Mahanjana said the prosecutor, Phumla Dwane-Alpman, did not oppose bail in the matter.
She, however, asked the court to set an amount of R10 000 bail with conditions that Maja hand in his private and official passports to the investigating officer.
He should also inform the investigating officer when travelling outside Gauteng and should not interfere with state witnesses.
Maja’s attorney told the court that their client had already demoted by his employer regarding the same matter and could therefore only afford R5 000 bail.
He also told the court that Maja has been cooperating with the state investigation and therefore he was not a flight risk.
Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said the department had noted Maja’s appearance and would first gather more information about the alleged charges before making any pronouncement on the matter.
“The department upholds its position of zero tolerance to fraud and corruption and will allow the legal process to take its course without any interference.
“The department believes in the principle of innocent until proven guilty. Procedural fairness will be adhered to to afford Maja space and opportunity to deal with the case.”
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