Northern Cape health official in court for tender fraud

The deputy director of plant engineering in the Northern Cape department of health, Godfrey Moncho, and five others – who are all relatives – appeared in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said Valentia Motlhanke, Godfrey Moncho, Maclean Motlhanke, Tshepo Timothy Motlhanke, Millicent Motlhanke and Nthabiseng Sekute, together with companies connected to them, were charged with 22 counts of fraud related to renovations at three public hospitals.

Ngwema said the companies were Afrollah Trading K Son Moss, Lojane Trading, Gamboby Trading, Mangacol, Joyce Solutions and Thari Sechaba Business Enterprise.

“The arrests were made by members of Directorate for Priority Investigations [DPCI], popularly known as the Hawks earlier this morning as part of leg five of Project Chow. There are matters already before court with regards to legs one to five.

“This matter relates to contracts issued for renovations of three public hospitals in the Northern Cape between July 2014 and June 2015. These were West End Specialised Hospital, and Kuruman and Kimberley Hospitals.

“The amounts were all under R500,000.00, as a result [the health department] did not go on open tender but service providers were invited to submit written quotations. However, supply chain processes were undermined in the selection process.

“Moncho was not in [the department’s] supply chain management unit but during instances relevant in this matter, he sourced quotations from service providers,” Ngwema said.

Valentia is a director of Afrollah Trading. Tshepo Motlhanke, is a director of Lojane Trading while Millicent is a director of Mangacol. Nthabiseng Sekute, the director of Joyce Solutions, is married to Maclean, the director of K Son Moss and Gamboby Trading, Ngwema said.

“All these business entities, including Thari ya Sechaba Business Enterprise CC, were awarded contracts [by the department] to the tune of R10 million.

“These service providers cover quoted to exclude competition and the directors did not declare that they were family members or that they were related to Moncho. In some of the hospitals they did not render all the services as per service level agreements yet they claimed and were paid full amounts of the contract.

“For example, Thari ya Sechaba Business Enterprise CC, whose director Kwenzani Ndabeni is expected to appear in court fairly soon, claimed that they installed 650m² vinyl sheeting at Kuruman Hospital and investigation revealed that this didn’t happen.

“The accused were granted R10,000 bail and the matter was postponed to February 2021.”

Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.