The health department’s former head of communications Popo Maja has appeared in court over corruption charges related to the Digital Vibes scandal, in which a R141m communications contract was awarded to an obscure company run by close associates of former health minister Zweli Mkhize in 2019.
Maja faces two charges of corruption totalling R15,000.
“My conscience is clear. I am happy it has come to this so I can clear my name,” said Maja, who handed himself over to the police and appeared in the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court on Wednesday.
It was found in a hard-hitting report by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into the Digital Vibes contract-rigging scandal that the circumstances in which the department awarded the deal were irregular and breached procurement rules set out in the Public Finance Management Act. The company was run by Mkhize’s close associates Tahera Mather and Naadira Mitha.
The SIU recommended disciplinary action be taken against six health department officials, including Maja. Four other senior officials were implicated, including former deputy director-general for regulation and compliance Anban Pillay, former chief director Shireen Pardesi, former CFO Ian van der Merwe and director-general Sandile Buthelezi.
The SIU also recommended that Pillay face criminal charges for fraud and financial misconduct for alleged misrepresentations to the National Treasury.
Pardesi and Van der Merwe resigned in the wake of the SIU investigation. After disciplinary proceedings, Maja and Pillay were demoted in July 2022 for 12 months.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said that Maja was a member of the bid specification and bid evaluation committee tasked with appointing a service provider for communication on National Health Insurance (NHI).
An amount of R10,000 was paid into Maja’s personal bank account from the Digital Vibes bank account on November 1 2019, the day the committee met to evaluate competing bids for the contract. A month later, on December 5, a further R5,000 was paid into the same account from the Digital Vibes account, the NPA maintains.
Maja said he had been unaware of the deposits until he was charged. “The first I heard about it was today. Whoever put it there will have to explain why they put it there,” he said.
Maja’s case is the second investigation related to the Digital Vibes scandal to come before the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court.
Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (Misa) employee Lizeka Tonjeni was arrested last year over corruption in connection with payments she allegedly received from Digital Vibes between December 2018 and August 2020. She was employed by Misa as director of executive support in the office of the CEO, and allegedly received payments totalling R160,000 from Digital Vibes to help the company win a R3.9m contract.
Misa is overseen by the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs, and Mkhize was minister of the department when the contract was awarded.
Prosecutor Phumla Dwane-Alpman did not oppose bail, and asked the court to set the amount at R10,000 on condition that Maja hand over his private and official passports and inform the investigating officer if he left Gauteng.
His attorney told the court that as Maja had been demoted he could only afford R5,000 bail. He also said that Maja had co-operated with the state since the inception of the matter and was therefore not a flight risk.
The matter was postponed to July 19.
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