Makhura ‘wishes to rescue a friend’, says DA after premier ‘leaves open door’ for Masuku

The Democratic Alliance (DA) have called upon Gauteng Premier David Makhura to rule out the possibility to reinstate Dr Bandile Masuku as Health MEC after he was discharged from his position in the department.

Makhura said on Friday that the decision to relieve Masuku of his responsibilities comes after the premier received an updated report from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) following allegations of irregularities in the province’s PPE (personal protective equipment) procurement processes.

In a statement, DA MPL Jack Bloom said the party was astonished that Makhura left the door open to reinstate Masuku if he was cleared of any wrongdoing in the matter.

“According to Makhura, the SIU has found that Masuku failed to execute his functions in compliance with the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

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“I am astonished that Makhura is prepared to overlook Masuku’s political failure as the SIU confirms the obvious fact that he failed to prevent the massive corruption that occurred.

“Contravention of the Constitution and the PFMA is a serious matter, and the outcome in this case has been about R2 billion irregular expenditure and inferior PPE that endangered the lives of health workers in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Makhura himself pointed out that senior officials were being disciplined or resigned because they did not take action to prevent the corruption. This surely applies to the political head as well,” Bloom said.

Bloom further suggested that the premier was looking to “rescue his friend” as the reason of not ruling out Masuku’s reinstatement.

“It seems that Makhura wishes to rescue a friend and political ally rather than enforce high standards of accountability. This undermines the fight against future corruption.

“The premier should rule out any reinstatement of Masuku as Health MEC and appoint a new MEC who can fix the deep rot in this department,” he said.

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