FILE PICTURE: Brian Hlongwa. Picture: Ayi Leshabane
An investigation into corruption at the Gauteng health department continues into its seventh year, including the alleged role of Niven Pillay, the executive director of Regiments Capital, who is embroiled in controversy over his dealings with Trillian and the Guptas.
According to a written reply by Gauteng community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane to DA shadow health MEC Jack Bloom, auditing firm Gobodo is finalising the forensic report, but there is information outstanding from the Gauteng legislature, and they have identified further transactions that need to be followed up with the banks.
“I am disappointed that this investigation is taking so long, as the Special Investigating Unit was given the mandate by a Presidential Proclamation on 14 May 2010.
“The alleged corruption involves more than R2 billion that occurred when Brian Hlongwa was health MEC. He is [currently] the ANC chief whip in the legislature despite an asset forfeiture application against him for a house he bought in Bryanston for R7.2 million allegedly from the proceeds of crime,” Bloom said.
Bloom alleged court documents showed the alleged corruption by Hlongwa and officials of the Gauteng health department (GHD) in relation to contracts between the GHD and 3P Consulting, certain subcontractors to 3P, Regiments Healthcare and the Baoki consortium.
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Pillay, of Regiments Capital, which owns Regiments Healthcare, is alleged to have received a contract of R3.5 million from GHD that was worth only R680 000, and to have paid Hlongwa a total of R1.7 million to help him buy the Bryanston house.
Richard Payne, the managing director of 3P, is also alleged to have paid R1.6 million to Hlongwa to buy the house. According to evidence submitted in court by the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP), there was “an apparent and generally corrupt relationship between Hlongwa and Payne”.
Bloom further alleged there were other benefits Hlongwa is alleged to have received that he did not declare to the legislature, including a trip to the Durban July Handicap for himself and his wife in 2008, with two nights at the Beverley Hills Hotel, paid for by Regiments.
“I hope that there has not been political interference to delay this case by extending the investigation, as it should have gone to court when the forensic auditors report of the Anti Corruption Task Team (ACTT) was finalised in March 2014. It is not at all clear why another investigation was then commissioned to be done by Gobodo at a cost of R3.6 million,” Bloom said in a media statement.
He argued that the current crisis in the Gauteng health department could largely be traced back to “Hlongwa’s disastrous tenure as Health MEC when managerial controls were battered and service delivery suffered”.
“The ANC in Gauteng tries to dissociate itself from Zuma and Gupta-related corruption, but has taken no action against Hlongwa despite the well-documented evidence against him.”
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