Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has remembered the more than 50,000 people who have lost their lives to Covid-19 during a webinar on 4 March 2021 hosted by the National Press Club and the GCIS. Picture: AFP/File/GUILLEM SARTORIO
The EFF says it will be writing to Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize seeking accountability and clarity on Covid-19 corruption allegations linked to his family friends.
The party said it would be making sure Mkhize is “suspended with immediate effect to allow a smooth process of investigation”.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said on Wednesday it was investigating Mkhize’s close associates on allegations of benefiting from Covid-19 contracts by the Department of Health valued at more than R82 million.
The EFF said it was disappointed that Mkhize’s long-time personal spokesperson and former private secretary, Tahera Mather, pocketed Covid-19 money as a paid consultant through irregular closed communication contracts from the department.
The party said Mkhize, as a leader of the vaccine procurement nationally and globally, cannot be trusted in this process with the cloud of allegations hanging over him.
“Mather’ s relationship with Mkhize dates back to the 1990s when he was MEC of health in KZN,” reads the statement.
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“The issue of the middleman in the procurement of vaccines which has been echoed by the EFF is now exposed and many more vaccine irregularities will be exposed.”
“The PPE fraud saga has now extended to Covid-19 money laundering and this time with the minister as a close associate to those that are benefiting from the Covid-19 pandemic debacle in South Africa.”
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