Friday, 23 October - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za) Page 3 – Monument struggling to recover Page 7 – Housing policy back to haunt minister
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 2 – Now school sports allowed
Page 3 – Multimillion rand fraud accused pleads poverty
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za) Page 1 – Eskom eyes green funds to ease debt Page 2 – Acting heads at half of top 10 Treasury posts
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 2 – ‘70% of workers have wages cut’
Page 2 – Minister caught by own rule Page 3 – Covid: we are tired
Mail & Guardian (www.mg.co.za) Page 4 – OVERDOSE COVER-UP
Page 6 – Ailing hospital’s vanity purchases
Monument struggling to recover
Pretoria News
23 Oct 2020
LIAM NGOBENI liam.ngobeni@inl.co.za
| Oupa Mokoena African News Agency (ANA)THE
Voortrekker Monument has reopened, but like many public institutions, it is yet to recover from the effects of the pandemic and lockdown.
THE VOORTREKKER Monument has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and despite opening since August, it still has not recovered.
Managing director Cecilia Kruger yesterday told the Pretoria News their losses during the peak of Covid-19 and higher levels of lockdown were immense.
“We lost more than 90% of our income, which was catastrophic. Since we opened on August 1 at half price, we still have not returned to normal at all,” said Kruger.
“Considering that more than 50% of our guests are from international countries and are currently red listed, we haven’t even recovered by a margin of 10% per month since August.
“We were forced to a stand-still through Covid-19, like many others globally. International tourism is one of the sectors that are hardest hit and that will likely not be able to recover in the next year. Nevertheless, the Monument has not given up.” She said campaigns had been launched to supplement the inadequate cash flow and expenses had to be curbed. “The virtual sale of the monument has been the most successful campaign by far and has nearly generated R1.4m of the budgeted R6m, and approaching the festive season, there are planned activities and exciting activities to bring.”
She said there would be development of outdoor activities, restaurant facilities, further development of educational programmes and energy saving methods.
“These are the main projects that the Voortrekker Monument management is focusing on at the moment, after these past difficult months.
“The support from the public has been unbelievable, and we have realised anew how important the conservation of the monument is.”
She said to curb spending, they would be using water tanks, pipes and pumps donated by Earthcon, and had replaced the 80-year-old water supply system on site.
“With a municipal water account at an average of R80 000 per month, this investment will benefit the Monument greatly.”
The management has also investigated the installation of solar panels more than a year ago, to aid with the enormous electricity account – at a further averaged amount of R90 000 per month. She said the new restaurant owners had already started with the refurbishment of the new Plaaskombuis, where Sunday buffet lunches, among others, would be served by mid- November 2020.
“The development of our online educational programmes and new outdoor activities is also progressing well, and will be available by early 2021,” said Kruger.
Housing policy back to haunt minister
Pretoria News
23 Oct 2020
SEOUL: South Korea’s finance minister, the architect of rules aimed at protecting tenants and slowing deposit increases, has himself been forced to look for a new home as landlords react to the rules by quickly replacing tenants so they can bump up deposits.
Hong Nam-ki is also faced with broadening his search as the average deposit where he lives 20 minutes from parliament has soared by a third since his housing rules took effect in July, with the irony of his predicament setting the internet alight.
Now school sports allowed
Angie Motshekga permits extra-curricular activities within Covid- 19 safety protocols
The Star Early Edition
23 Oct 2020
TEBOGO MONAMA
AFTER months of all work and no play school pupils will now be allowed to take part in extra-curricular activities including non-contact sports.
Extracurricular activities like sports and drama in schools were stopped as a way to curb the spread of Covid-19. This week Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga published a gazette allowing students to participate in the activities, within certain rules.
The only activities allowed are non-contact sports such as athletics, swimming and tennis.
Arts and culture activities like oral history, spelling bee, moot court, speech contests, debates and school clubs are also allowed.
All activities are to resume without spectators, even though schools are allowed to travel to competitions across provinces.
According to the updated regulations, for inter-school sports activities there should be no more than 250 people if it is an indoor activity and no more than 500 people if the event is held outdoors.
The regulations further state: “The number of persons in the sporting venues, change rooms or training area at any given time must not be more than 50% of the capacity of the venue with persons observing the social distancing requirements.”
Teacher union Naptosa spokesperson Basil Manuel said while they are happy the
extracurricular activities are back, there might not be time to engage in them because of the exam season. Schools close today and will open on November 2.
“They are always an important extra in schools but currently, there is little sport happening.
When schools open it will be exam mode. That might be different for schools that place more emphasis on sports, like the boys schools, and they will tell you that youngsters will use the excess energy.
He said it was important to ensure that schools returned to as much normality as possible while at the same time adhering to Covid-19 safety precautions.
“We have to normalise things eventually. We have to come back to the centre. We have cautioned our members to be safe and follow all precautions, especially with what is
happening in the Western Cape and the University of Fort Hare. Otherwise a group of people coming together can be a problem,” Basil said.
The Western Cape has been seeing an increase in their Covid-19 numbers. Over 89 cases of the virus have been linked to an event at a bar where high school learners were in attendance.
About 38 of them have been forced to defer their exams to next year after contracting the virus.
The University of Fort Hare recently recorded over 125 confirmed cases following a student party held in a pub in East London.
The regulations state that learners and their teachers and coaches are also required to wear face masks when in the sporting venues, except when participating in training or matches.
Hand sanitisers and hand-washing facilities should also be available at all venues. And, where feasible, windows and doors are to remain open at all times.
No sharing of water bottles, energy drinks or other drinks is allowed.
Motshekga also stipulated that for contact sports, training may resume only if the schools adhere to “social distancing, hygiene and safety measures are observed and that there is no physical contact between participants during training”.
She also said that schools must ensure that all sporting venues, tools and equipment are cleaned and sanitised before and after any practice session.
Multimillion rand fraud accused pleads poverty
The Star Early Edition
23 Oct 2020
GIFT TLOU gift.tlou@inl.co.za
AN affidavit compiled by a Home Affairs Department investigator has prolonged the prison stay of the City of Johannesburg’s alleged fraudster Brighton Kuzovamuhu Chifamba.
This comes after Chifamba was denied bail at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday.
The Zimbabwean national looked calm ahead of his formal bail hearing on charges of theft, money laundering, corruption and fraud.
The 49-year-old and his company Setheo Engineering are alleged to have swindled R66 million from the city’s coffers.
This comes after his company clinched a contract worth R126 million with the city in 2015 to build a substation in Eldorado Park.
Chifamba held the position of a project manager when the company secured the multimillion rand contract through a fraudulent bank guarantee which led the city to believe they had the balance sheet to handle the project.
In his affidavit, Chifamba indicated he was an abiding foreign national in the country, with the required documentation.
Also contained in the affidavit, it states Chifamba is reliant on odd electrical jobs, which is his only source of income.
The accused also indicated he is a father of two and that his wife who works in corporate with a salary of less than R10 000 is the remaining breadwinner.
His lawyer further argued the accused could only afford a bail amount of R5 000.
However, things took a sharp turn for the accused and his lawyer when the prosecutor pulled out an affidavit from Home Affairs.
According to the affidavit, Chifamba is an illegal immigrant in the country, while his residential address has also come under scrutiny.
It is unclear as to where Chifamba permanently resides, despite his affidavit linking him to a rental property in Alberton, Ekurhuleni.
The Home Affairs official has since been summoned to court for further clarity and information they have on Chifamba.
The city of Joburg has also been monitoring the case with interest while also probing the matter internally.
The city’s Forensic and Investigation Service (GFIS) department has since found two
employees of the City, Maete Thoka and Godfrey Mulaudzi, were implicated in the awarding of the tender.
It is alleged they colluded with officials from Setheo Engineering to ensure invoices that were submitted and paid without any physical work done on the substation.
The Star has been informed that other suspects implicated in the matter are due to be arrested soon.
Eskom eyes green funds to ease debt
• De Ruyter points to refinancing solution • Funding may depend on cutting carbon footprint
Business Day
23 Oct 2020
Lisa Steyn Energy & Resources Writer
Eskom is working on a green deal that could not only bring clean power alternatives online but also help alleviate its crippling R488bn debt burden.
The state-owned monopoly utility with its ailing operations and deteriorating finances has been pinpointed as one of the biggest risks to the SA economy, not least because of its enormous debt. A solution to its debt has yet to be announced, even as Eskom moves to unbundle itself into three business units.
A possible green transaction could go some way to help turn around its fortunes, and a number of development finance institutions have indicated their interest in helping Eskom to make a just energy transition, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said at the utility’s state of the system briefing on Thursday.
While De Ruyter earlier this month said Eskom would look to tap developmental funding to expand and strengthen its power grid, at Thursday’s briefing he indicated that green funding could be accessed for more than just transmission plans.
It could even assist the cashstrapped organisation pursue a large renewable new-build programme.
The availability of such funding is, however, likely to depend on Eskom reducing its carbon footprint, De Ruyter said.
“There is a reluctance by green financiers to extend loans to a company with such a high carbon footprint as Eskom has, and we therefore are developing a solution ... which will probably involve linking [the availability of] concessional financing or discounted financing
— which obviously will help us with our debt burden and also with our interest burden, which is sitting at R28bn to R30bn a year — and link that to decarbonisation.”
COST OF ELECTRICITY
That may entail the accelerated retiring of polluting coal-fired plants and replacing capacity with cleaner alternatives.
“This could improve not just air quality but the reliability, availability and cost of electricity,”
De Ruyter said.
Chris Yelland, an energy analyst and MD at EE Business Intelligence, said green funding can bring down the cost of debt when concessionary finance is used to refinance existing debt at a more favourable interest rate.
De Ruyter said the concept was still in development and Eskom was appointing a panel of financial advisers with expertise in green financing that could assist with such transactions.
He said this was necessary
because there are no global examples of such a transaction that are applicable to Eskom’s situation of having a large coal fleet that will remain in operation for an extended period.
De Ruyter emphasised that an energy transition would need to be a just one so that the societal impact of retiring coal plants in favour of cleaner alternatives was mitigated.
Yelland, however, said the debt issue was out of Eskom’s hands. “It ’ s not Eskom’s decision to make. It’s up to the shareholder [the government].”
At Thursday’s briefing the utility reported on a number of initiatives to improve its operational performance, such as tackling design defects at its Medupi and Kusile mega plants and the ramping up of long-term maintenance.
While the risk of loadshedding remains, Eskom expects to see this risk reduce in December and expects a stepchange in the performance of its plants by April next year.
REFRESHING
The initiative taken by Eskom on this and a number of other issues was refreshing, Yelland said. “This is a new era we are in and it inspires a lot more confidence. For the first time I’m seeing a real understanding [from Eskom] of what’s got to happen. Now it’s getting the politicians to do what has to be done.”
Acting heads at half of top 10 Treasury posts
Business Day
23 Oct 2020
Lynley Donnelly Linda Ensor donnellyl@businesslive.co.za
GCISGaps: Finance minister Tito Mboweni, political head of the Treasury, where half of the top 10 positions are not filled permanently./
The Treasury is still working to make permanent appointments in critical senior roles, despite undertakings more than a year ago to get a special dispensation from the cabinet to fast-track the filling of posts. The department is at the helm of navigating SA' s dire financial position, which has been aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis, with finance minister Tito Mboweni set to deliver a delayed medium-term budget policy statement next week.
The Treasury is still working to make permanent appointments in critical senior roles, despite undertakings to get a special dispensation from the cabinet to fasttrack the filling of posts more than a year ago.
The department is at the helm of navigating SA’s dire financial position, which has been acutely aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis, with finance minister Tito Mboweni set to deliver a delayed medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) next week.
Mboweni must outline how the budget will accommodate more money for state-owned entities such as SAA, which the cabinet recently saw fit to bail out with R10.5bn.
He will also clarify how the government will balance funding its economic reconstruction and recovery plan, announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, with reducing debt and curbing spending.
Ramaphosa emphasised that a capable state would be a pillar of the recovery programme, but the skills and capacity shortages within government have fuelled doubt about the plan. That the Treasury — which is traditionally a bulwark of expertise within the government — has not yet resolved its critical staffing issues is viewed as a sign that SA’s political leadership neither values nor understands the necessity for a professional public service.
Five of the 10 most senior deputy director-general roles at the Treasury still have acting heads, with some posts without permanent leadership since 2017. And long-serving senior officials such as Catherine MacLeod, who was chief director of macroeconomic policy, and Roy Havemann, former chief director for financial markets, stability and prudential
regulation, left recently.
The asset and liability management department charged with overseeing government borrowings and debt is, more than a year later, still being stewarded by acting deputy directorgeneral Tshepiso Moahloli.
The budget office, responsible for spending planning, fiscal policy and public sector remuneration, has been without a permanent head since 2017. It had been led by acting deputy director-general Ian Stuart, who was replaced earlier this year by Edgar Sishi, also in an acting capacity.
The chief procurement officer, who plays a pivotal role in guarding against abuse of government procurement processes, and the accountant-general, who sets the accounting rules for the public sector, have not had permanent appointments for roughly three years.
In October last year, deputy financeminister David Masondo and director-general Dondo Mogajane told MPs that the Treasury was negotiating a special dispensation from the cabinet to expedite the appointment of senior officials.
The difficulties do not appear to be confined to the top tiers of management. The Treasury’s careers portal, accessed on Thursday, lists almost 40 vacancies at senior, deputy director, director and chief director level.
But the Treasury said that the recruitment process to fill all its deputy director-general posts is under way, with the selection process on three of them already handed over to the
department of public service & administration, in line with executive protocols on heads of department and deputy director-general appointments.
In previous responses it has said that despite some positions being occupied on an acting basis the acting officials “possess the necessary capabilities, skills and knowledge required to perform and act in those positions, while the process of permanent appointment is being finalised”.
Through its talent pipeline, competent people are identified and groomed for future
promotions, it said. Its executive committee continues to engage staff on operational needs and development support.
Overall, the Treasury’s vacancy rate for all senior management posts — or salary bands 13 to 16 — is at 19%, with the recruitment process on most of these vacancies, including other non-senior management positions, under way.
By March 31 this year, the Treasury had managed to reduce its turnover rates among senior management, or directorlevel positions, from 19.4% in 2019 to 8.8%. Similarly, the turnover rate for chief directors has declined from 20.7% to 7.5%.
Former head of the budget office and now adjunct professor at Wits University, Michael Sachs, said that the Treasury’s difficulties in filling posts were no different from those of other government departments, a problem that has been compounded in recent years as compensation budgets have come under increasing pressure.
Sachs said that it was a problem that posts such as the chief procurement officer and the accountant-general, which “go to the core of basic government functions ”, had been without permanent appointments for such a long time.
This spoke to the wider problem of a political leadership that did not understand how the machinery of government worked, said Sachs.
Despite their political pronouncements, they “don ’ t seem to value a professional public service”, he said.
“It ’ s not a priority for them to have the best professionals they can find, for the limited money they have, to [perform] the most critical functions,” he said. / With
‘70% of workers have wages cut’
COVID: WOMEN HARDEST HIT BY INCOME, JOB LOSSES Labour body’s study finds that up to 1.5m in SA, 70 000 in Zambia lost jobs.
The Citizen (Gauteng)
23 Oct 2020
– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni
Unions in southern Africa have highlighted the devastating effects of Covid-19 on workers, saying the livelihoods of almost 70% of workers in the region have been severed.
A study conducted by the Southern African Trade Union Co-ordinating Council has affi that across the countries surveyed, wages and livelihoods have been impacted severely due the pandemic. According to the study, about 67% of the respondents noted that there was a reduction in wages.
The council, which includes the union federation Cosatu, has called for the region to embark on a campaign and assist and encourage affi liates to fight for “national living wages” that allowed workers to meet their needs.
Among unions that carried out statistical analysis of the job losses due to Covid-19, job losses ranged between 70 000 in Zambia to 1.5 million in SA.
In SA, where the world bank found 50% of employers favoured reduced wages for more than half their staff, sectors where women predominated were the hardest hit by income and job losses.
These included domestic work, hospitality, clothing, retail and informal employment. Women faced increased unpaid care work, with children at home from school, care for the elderly and increased housework and emotional support during the pandemic, the study found.
A multi-pronged approach to recovery would require an overhaul of existing policy frameworks providing for workers’ needs in light of the pandemic.
The report called for unions to emphasise the need for policies which reduced the exposure of workers (both formal and informal) to the virus.
It called for governments to start collecting data on the job losses by sector, so they are able to address the issue “from an informed point and be able to offer alternatives on what could be done [nationally], in terms of social assistance and retraining”.
Minister caught by own rule
The Citizen (Gauteng)
23 Oct 2020
Seoul – South Korea’s finance minister, the architect of rules aimed at protecting tenants and slowing deposit increases, has himself been forced to look for a new home as landlords react to the rules by quickly replacing tenants so they can bump up deposits.
Hong Nam-ki is also faced with broadening his search as the average deposit where he lives 20 minutes from parliament has soared by a third since his housing rules took effect in July, with the irony of his predicament setting the internet alight.
“Worse comes to worst, he can camp by the Presidential Blue House, right?” one netizen asked on a real estate forum.
Seoul apartment prices have risen more than 50% since the left-leaning President Moon Jae- in inherited loosened mortgage rules from the previous administration three years ago.
To slow buy-to-rent demand, the Housing Lease Protection Act, led by Hong, capped increases of deposits at 5% and allowed tenants to extend standard two-year contracts for another two, unless landlords themselves move into the property.
Covid: we are tired
A University of Johannesburg survey suggests that South Africans are relaxing their guard against the coronavirus, but there are warnings that this behaviour could have dire consequences.
The Citizen (Gauteng)
23 Oct 2020
Brian Sokutu brians@citizen.co.za
Findings suggest four in 10 adults believe threat of coronavirus is exaggerated.
Under the relaxed Covid-19 alert Level 1, many South Africans have experienced a growing fatigue, a greater complacency and noncompliance to health protocols, with 41% describing the pandemic as being “exaggerated”.
A survey conducted during July and September by associate professor Carin Runciman at University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Centre for Social Change and the Development, Capable and Ethical State of the Human Sciences Research Council found there was “a worrying growth in pandemic fatigue”.
“With the greater number of people not complying with public health measures, there is a need for strong and continued public health messaging, that the threat posed by the virus is not over – even though we are now at a lower alert Level 1,” said Runciman.
Describing the pandemic fatigue as “real”, Dr Giles van Cutsem of Doctors Without Borders said there was a risk of a second wave “if previously unexposed people decrease their
prevention behaviour – especially if people congregate in confined and poorly ventilated spaces for long periods of time, as seen in Europe”.
“This risk however needs to be
There is a risk of a second wave if previously unexposed people decrease their prevention behaviour – especially if people congregate in confined and poorly ventilated spaces.
mitigated by the fact that many people have already been infected in SA,” said Van Cutsem.
With SA having seen high levels of community transmissions and previous exposure to the infection, Van Cutsem said he was “not sure that reopening the borders to tourists would pose a threat, provided that we continue to apply strict protective measures”.
According to the results of the survey: Four in 10 adults believed the threat of the coronavirus was exaggerated, with 41% believing the pandemic was overstated; Sixty-five percent of adults believed President Cyril Ramaphosa was doing a good job in his handling of the pandemic – a 20% drop in confidence compared to the first survey; A number of people wearing face masks stood at 37% in early April, increasing to just over 70% in July, August and September; Among 30% of adults, 20% said that they wore a mask “most of the time”
and about 7% “some of the time”, with only 2% saying they never (or not often) wore a mask; Frequent feelings of fear remained at a consistently high level from April through July – ranging between 44% and 47%. However, this fell to 31% during August and early
September; and Seventy-two percent of participants said they would sacrifice
some human rights, including attending church services, if that contributed towards the prevention of the spread of the virus.
The survey was conducted online, using the #datafree Moya Messenger app, which has two million active users.
The data comprised 12 312 respondents for the first round of surveying and 7 966 respondents for the second round.
Results are based on an opt-in sample using cellphones or computers and weighted by race, education and gender to match Stats SA’s demographic data, making them broadly indicative of the attitudes, preferences and behaviours of South Africans.
–
OVERDOSE COVER-UP
The SANDF is paying Cuba more than R200m for hundreds of thousands of doses of a Covid-19 drug that has not been approved And this expenditure was seemingly hidden from the committee appointed by the president to investigate Covid corruption
Mail & Guardian
23 Oct 2020
Sabelo Skiti
Asenior official in the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) has blown the whistle on the defence force spending more than R200-million on a drug from Cuba that the health department here has banned from being used to treat symptoms of Covid-19.
The military paid R35- million for 130 000 doses of the InterferonAlpha-2b drug — enough to treat 8 600 military personnel — and is to make another payment of R182million for a consignment that has already been delivered.
According to a confidential internal report by Major-general Lesley Ford, the chief director for military health service support, the drug has been stored inside the military health service’s base depot.
He said the defence force did not make the necessary applications before procuring the drug.
The procurement was not captured on the SAMHS inventory, and was done without following due process.
“It is not clear who created the demand for the Interferon and it is understood that said requirement was not initiated by the SAMHS. This would make sense as the drug is not SAHPRA [South African Health Products Regulatory Authority] approved for use within South Africa. A post facto application has been made to SAHPRA for the first batch of Interferon subsequent to the receipt in the depot [but has] seemingly not been granted to date,” Ford said.
The payment could have been deliberately made against an “incorrect expenditure classification to avoid detection”, he said in his memo to senior defence force leaders, including the surgeon general, the chiefs of staff and logistics.
“At no stage was any SAMHS projection of Covid-19 infections close to this number of patients. Therefore the basis of calculation that informed this already seemingly controversial transaction may not have been concluded with reasonable care.
“It is anticipated that this plausible fruitless cost will amount to approximately R182m.”
Several sources told the Mail & Guardian that some people in the defence force wanted the drug stockpile to be removed from the military health base depot near Pretoria Central and destroyed. But this was hampered by the Cubans calling last week to find out about the unpaid balance of the R182-million.
“The first batch, which was in ampules to be mixed with saline, arrived with the medics from Cuba, and the next batch arrived two weeks later,” said one source, who asked not to be
named. “They’re filling a 50 x 20 metre shelf at the depot right now because the doctors at 1 Military have refused to administer the Interferon due to their [Hippocratic] oath and being struck off the roll for administering [an unapproved] drug to Covid patients.”
The import and purchase of the medicine in April was hidden from the inter-ministerial committee appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate all Covid19 related corruption. A check of the
defence department’s list, which was submitted in August to the committee, did not include Interferon as part of the expenditure.
The Special Investigating Unit has, to date, looked into more than R5-billion of corruption linked to Covid-19.
The Hawks made their first Covid arrest on Thursday: Pumza Gambula was arrested in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, for claiming R4.8-million from the OR Tambo district municipality for Covid-19 awareness workshops that she and employees of her company, Phathilizwi Training Institute, allegedly did not conduct.
They visited wards but people “were asked to write down their names for Covid-19 social grants”, the National Prosecuting Authority said, adding that the attendance registers submitted as proof of services rendered had names of people who did not live in the wards visited.
At the time of the announcement of the inter-ministerial committee, Ramaphosa, who was under pressure to act against rampant corruption in the emergency procurement of personal protective equipment, said all
departments should report expenditure related to the coronavirus.
This is the second instance of a deal between the defence force and the Cubans falling foul of due process. Last year the M&G reported that the auditor general flagged a R900-million contract signed by the South African National Defence Force chief, General Solly Shoke, in 2014 to have 150 Cuban mechanics fix old army trucks. The five-year deal, which escalated from R35million a year, was signed without permission from the secretary of defence and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-nqakula.
The minister’s office was told that it was Shoke who signed the Cuban Interferon drug contract, according to a source with intimate knowledge of developments in the defence force’s top corridor of power. “The contract was signed by the chief [Shoke], but no one has seen it.”
This latest embarrassment comes as the military is still lobbying the government to create a separate Defence Finance Management Act, because it regards the procurement laws in the Public Finance Management Act as too “restrictive”.
The M&G has seen a recommendation by the national essential medicine list committee’s therapeutic guidelines subcommittee. The experts are appointed by the health minister to formulate and revise the country’s list of medicines and develop standard treatment guidelines after considering clinical need, evidence of efficacy, quality, safety, affordability and implications for practice.
The subcommittee’s advice, which was issued in July, said: “We recommend against the use of Interferon for the treatment of Covid-19 in hospitalised patients, but eligible patients may be considered in the context of an approved clinical trial. The rationale for this, it said, was that “evidence of efficacy and safety is very uncertain at this point, and cost is a
consideration”.
Ekurhuleni metro’s executive mayor, Mzwandile Masina, and the recently fired Gauteng health MEC, Bandile Masuku, wanted to import Interferon as a “vaccine” for Covid19, the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism reported in March.
The province’s health department said at the time the drug has “antiviral properties” and had been used for specialised treatment. This was in reference to the health products regulatory authority registering the drug as a treatment for skin cancer.
Kwara Kekana, a spokesperson for acting health MEC Jacob Mamabolo, had not confirmed at the time of publication whether the department had bought the drug.
The Bhekisisa article describes interferons as a group of proteins produced by the body to fight off viral infections, and have been used to treat some types of cancers and hepatitis C.
There is no evidence that interferons work to treat Covid-19.
The SANDF was approached for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.
The minister’s office was told that “The contract was signed by the chief (Shoke), but no one has seen it”
Ailing hospital’s vanity purchases
Suspected overtime fraudster appointed as Gauteng hospital chief executive
Mail & Guardian
23 Oct 2020
Khaya Koko
Falling apart: A dilapidated hospital bed and wheelchair at Far East Rand Hospital in Ekurhuleni
‘Vanity” furniture worth R379 000 purchased by a Gauteng hospital chief executive, who was appointed despite facing serious fraud disciplinary charges, has highlighted the “stench”
of the provincial health system.
Dr Zachariah Mathaba, the chief executive at Ekurhuleni’s Far East Rand Hospital, was appointed to his current position in November 2019. He transferred from Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital, which is in the same metro.
This is according to official provincial human resources documents seen by the Mail &
Guardian, showing how Mathaba’s chief executive appointment happened, despite an uproar from unions after it emerged that he claimed overtime from September 2017 to March 2019 for work he allegedly didn’t do.
This was confirmed in the provincial legislature in December last year by former Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku, who revealed that Mathaba’s disciplinary hearing had begun in January 2019.
Meanwhile, the M&G has seen invoices and delivery notes for Far East Rand Hospital, which purchased more than 20 luxury office furniture items that included leather couches and chairs, an R8 280 “dynasty desk”, a R16 675 wall unit and wooden coat and hat hangers, among other items. The delivery note for the furniture is dated September 30 2020.
These purchases aroused the ire of hospital staff, who alleged that Mathaba bought “vanity furniture” despite the facility lacking critical equipment; wheelchairs, stretchers and hospital beds are dilapidated.
“I can also attest to the fact that [Mathaba] authorised overtime for five staff members to remove old furniture from his office,”said a source, who asked to remain anonymous.
“There is a general concern among staff members that the chief executive isn’t concerned about critical tools of service delivery, instead [he’s] more concerned about his office.”
Another source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mathaba had begun victimising staff members who he believed had leaked documentation about his alleged misuse of funds to the M&G.
This included the 190% inflation of a contract awarded in June for Covid- 19- related infrastructure, which ballooned from R139 126 to R404 190 in less than a month.
The M&G has seen invoices paid to Zabelo Trading, but the owner, Zabelo Mndawe, declined to comment on them.
Jack Bloom, the Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng legislature member, who asked why Mathaba was hired despite facing serious charges, said the chief executive’s appoint ment was “a microcosm of the stench of the provincial health system”.
“[Mathaba] should never have been appointed while facing serious allegations,” Bloom said.
Gauteng health department spokesperson Philani Mhlungu did not answer questions as to why Mathaba, facing serious allegations, was appointed as chief executive.
Mhlungu also refused to reveal at what stage Mathaba’s disciplinary process was at, or why it had taken almost two years to finalise.
“The department follows the prescribed labour relations process when dealing with employee matters,” Mhlungu said.
He added that the hospital management had agreed on a budget for equipment that included buying furniture for seven offices. Mhlungu said the hospital had undertaken projects “to improve the ailing infrastructure”.
The projects included the refurbishment of wards five and eight. “The current CEO ensured that ward eight became operational in December 2019,” Mhlungu said.
Other projects included the refurbishment of the doctors’ residence; refurbishment of the Lonmin building to increase the number of Covid19 beds by 16; refurbishment and painting of the nurses’ residence, which is still in progress; refurbishment and extension of the milk room; and refurbishment of a cafeteria as part of the employee value proposition.
Mhlungu said 26 items of equipment, including ultrasound machines, ventilators and cardiac machines had also been procured.
He added: “Institutions and management found to misuse public funds are held accountable, and where there is evidence of criminality, the department has referred these matters to the law enforcement agencies.”
