Truth needed on Diko involvement

It has got to the stage when, if someone in the ANC told you today is Wednesday, you would go off to get independent confirmation, such is their public ducking and diving.

And initially, too, that was the organisation’s response to a report in The Sunday Independent that the husband of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, had inappropriately benefitted from tenders for Covid-19 protective gear awarded by the Gauteng department of health.

Diko is reported to be close friends with the wife of Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku. There have been vociferous denials all round and the defence is that the tender was never awarded, or was withdrawn. No doubt that will be part of a promised investigation.

We hope that this is not a case of “where there is smoke, there is fire”… However, it also appears that amaBhaca king Thandisizwe Diko draws a state “allowance” of more than R1 million a year for being a royal … and is involved in various government-linked bodies and boards.

The whole affair smacks of a network of interconnected ANC high-ups, who have the inside line on a number of money-making opportunities … and who live lavish lifestyles as a result. That unsavoury atmosphere must be cleared as soon as possible.

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