Health minister appoints Sibusisiwe Ngubane Zulu as chief of staff

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has appointed Sibusisiwe Ngubane Zulu as the department’s chief of staff.

Zulu, a qualified advocate, former acting judge at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court and partner in law firm Ngubane Wills Inc, was announced to staff as their new chief in an e-mail sent to all members of the health department on 4 November last year.

“Kindly be informed that Sibusisiwe Ngubane was appointed as the chief of staff in the office of the minister,” the e-mail read.

According to chapter 3 of the Ministerial Handbook, a Cabinet minister is entitled to appoint one chief of staff. Zulu, who served on the PIC board from 2015 to 2019, was at the centre of corruption allegations at the commission of inquiry into the PIC last year.

According to the allegations contained in e-mails by a James Nogu, Zulu secured a number of deals amounting to about R6 billion from the PIC to her lover and businessman, Lawrence Mulaudzi.

She allegedly approved transactions of R2 billion without the board’s consent and received kickbacks to fund her lavish lifestyle, including a house on Umhlanga Ridge and a luxury car. Zulu’s boyfriend was allegedly paid R100 million in facilitation fees for a BEE deal with Total, but R40 million of the payment was allegedly shared between her and her uncle Mkhize.

Zulu has denied the allegations and a lifestyle audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers into five former PIC officials, including Zulu, found no evidence of criminality as purported in the e-mails.

It was not the first time that Mkhize was accused of using his position in order to benefit the woman who has been described as his niece in reports, but she explicitly denies that they have a family relationship. In 2012, Mkhize was accused of nepotism by opposition parties when Zulu was to be appointed to the KZN gambling and betting board.

Mkhize, who was KZN premier at the time, denied any involvement in her appointment. Regarding her appointment to the health ministry, spokesperson Popo Maja told The Citizen that Zulu was only heeding the Thuma Mina call.

He said her appointment brought “a wealth of knowledge, given her astute understanding and experience of public, constitutional and administrative law”.

“While the president and the ruling ANC have made a commitment to be more stringent in the selection process of public representatives, it goes without say that those public representatives must also ensure that state institutions are supported by qualified and experienced officials who will add value to the government’s pursuit of service delivery for all South Africans.”

He added that the minister was not required to declare the appointment.

Note, an earlier version of this story contained errors and the article has been updated as per the text below.

We have received a complaint from Ngubane-Zulu regarding the headline and the article, as being defamatory and misleading and the allegations of corruption and nepotism being untruthful and unfounded.

On the first point, The Citizen concedes that it was misleading for the headline and article to describe her as being “implicated in corruption”.

We are aware that Ngubane-Zulu was cleared of allegations of corruption in an investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted on behalf of the PIC Commission.

This investigation found no substance to these allegations and that there was no evidence of impropriety and criminal conduct.

On the second point, we posed a question to the department’s spokesperson, Popo Maja, asking him if Ngubane-Zulu was related to the minister.

Maja did not respond to the question.

We relied on reports by other publications on the alleged family relationship without verification.

We also did not contact Ngubane-Zulu to ask her.

We now realise that this was an error.

Ngubane-Zulu in her complaint to the press ombudsman has explicitly denied being the minister’s niece.

We therefore apologise to Ngubane-Zulu for these errors and retract the article as published.

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