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A former employee at Zweli Mkhize’s Ikusasa Le Afrika Foundation (ILAF) is reportedly among individuals linked to the health minister who ostensibly benefitted from a R82 million Covid-19 communications deal.
On Wednesday, the Daily Maverick reported that Yenzi Sokhela, who is originally from KwaZulu-Natal, worked as a communications specialist at the Pietermaritzburg-based foundation before joining Mkhize’s so-called #Unity campaign ahead of the ANC’s Nasrec conference in 2017.
The ILAF was founded in 2013 and Mkhize still serves as its chairperson.
According to the news outlet, it “reliably learned that Sokhela started working for Digital Vibes in early 2020, after the company had secured a lucrative communications contract from the Department of Health (DoH). We also independently obtained documents that list Sokhela as a Digital Vibes employee”.
“Digital Vibes was first appointed in late 2019 to deliver communications services for the DoH’s National Health Insurance (NHI), but its scope of work was extended in March 2020. The company ultimately secured orders for work related to Covid-19 valued at R82 million,” the publication reported.
The contract was suspended in early March.
Last month, Mkhize said the department’s director-general, Sandile Buthelezi, flagged the contract with Digital Vibes – whose paid consultants have ties with Mkhize – for further investigation earlier this year and he advised that an external investigator be appointed, Newsofafrica reported.
This after the Daily Maverick revealed that Mkhize’s longtime personal spokesperson and alleged family friend, Tahera Mather, and Naadhira Mitha, who was Mkhize’s secretary when he was cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister, had benefited from the tender.
Mather and Mitha were allegedly paid as consultants by Digital Vibes and this raised concerns of a conflict of interest.
Footprint
The report described Digital Vibes as a small obscure communications company that had no website or any real footprint in the communications industry.
While Mkhize was addressing the National Council of Provinces on the government’s vaccine rollout plan in February, Gauteng DA MP Mbulelo Bara asked the minister to provide clarity on the matter.
Mkhize said around January, his director-general met with him to provide an update on ongoing investigations at the department.
Buthelezi informed Mkhize the Auditor-General had made findings against the Digital Vibes contract and found it irregular, and Buthelezi recommended it be investigated further.
“I fully supported this view, and asked him to go ahead,” Mkhize said at the time.
