Trial against senior health official set to continue next year
Comms manager accused of receiving payments while serving on the committee. Explanation needed.
The case against a 63-year-old senior Health Department official linked to the Digital Vibes corruption scandal has been postponed to 2024.
NPA regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court had postponed the case against Joseph Themba Popo Maja to February 13 for a trial date.
The former National Department of Health senior communications manager faces two counts of corruption amounting to a total of R15 000.
Maja first appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on June 21. However the case was postponed and he was granted bail of R5 000.
Mahanjana said Maja had also been given relaxed conditions after his recent court appearance.
His attorney asked for the bail condition, where Maja is supposed to report to the investigating officer every time he leaves Gauteng province, to be relaxed.
The application was granted by the court, but, all the other bail conditions are still applicable.
Maja had, during his initial appearance handed in his private and official passports to the investigating officer and was instructed not to interfere with state witnesses.
His appearance comes after an Auditor-General report flagged possible overcharging by Digital Vibes regarding Covid-related communication in October 2020.
This resulted in both internal and Special Investigating Unit investigations (SUI) in February 2021 and subsequently, the suspension of the Digital Vibes contract.
The SIU had found there was irregular expenditure of R150-million, as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R72-million.
Other SIU findings regarding the Digital Vibe contract were:
– The tender had been irregularly awarded
– Procurement procedures, National Treasury regulations and Public Finance Management Act regulations had not been followed
– conflict of interest.
SIU has not cleared anyone in the Digital Vibes matter. The matter is currently pending in the High Court. Due to this matter pending in court, the SIU will respect the court process and not comment further.
— Special Investigating Unit (SIU) (@RSASIU) October 19, 2022
“It is alleged that in 2019, Maja was appointed as a member of the Bid Specification and Bid Evaluation Committee. The committee was tasked to appoint a service provider to provide communication services concerning the National Health Insurance Bill,” said Mahanjana.
She said further allegations were that on November 1, 2019, bid evaluation committee members set out to evaluate bidders for functional and technical evaluation after Digital Vibes was recommended to be contracted the bid amount of over 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, on December 5, 2019, R5 000 was paid again to his account by Digital Vibes.”
Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale previously said the department had noted Maja’s appearance and would first gather more information about the 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 afford Maja space and opportunity to deal with the case.”
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