Gauteng health loses R48 million through collusive corruption

Eighty-five companies — the majority of which are single-director shell businesses involved in apparent collusive behaviour — benefited from R48 million of vanity purchases approved by a Gauteng hospital chief executive and his alleged “corruption mafia”.

The procurement included wrist watches, a music concert and vastly inflated prices for repair work and renovations at Pholosong Hospital in Ekurhuleni, from May 2019 to August 2022. 

The apparent collusion was revealed following the sourcing of 1 000 pages of internal documents during a Mail & Guardian investigation, showing more than 122 invoices paid during Ashley Mthunzi’s tenure as Pholosong Hospital’s chief executive.

All 122 transactions, totalling R48.3 million, were below the R500 000 threshold regulated by the treasury. Contracts for more than that amount have to be advertised for competitive bids.

The M&G previously reported that Mthunzi, who became Tembisa Tertiary Hospital’s chief executive but is now suspended, moved around with the same management team, called the “corruption mafia” by senior provincial sources, at Pholosong, Far East Rand and Tembisa hospitals – where they centralised procurement to allegedly loot from the ailing provincial health system. 

Mthunzi’s alleged corruption came to a head on Tuesday when Tembisa hospital was raided by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), which said that “there exist untoward practices in relation to contracts below R500 000 which have been issued purchase orders between 2016 and 2022”. The Hawks said the contracts totalled R850 million.