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Gauteng Health Head should be suspended

Dear Johannesburg

Gauteng Premier David Makhura should immediately suspend Professor Mkululi Lukhele, the Head of the Gauteng Health Department, who is implicated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in the irregular award of PPE contracts according to a report in City Press newspaper today.

According to the report, damning evidence has been unearthed of price tampering, inflation of the value of goods, and collusion between Gauteng health officials and companies that were awarded lucrative PPE contracts.

This includes R80 million payments to a company owned by presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko’s husband, Nkosi Thandisizwe Diko. The Diko’s are family friends of suspended Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku and his wife Loyiso.

The SIU has reportedly found that Lukhele failed to institute disciplinary processes against Lehloenya even after her “unlawful and irregular conduct” was reported to him.

Makhura has been inexplicably slow in suspending Lukhele who is the accounting officer for the department and was plainly derelict in his duty to ensure that proper procurement procedures were followed.

Last month I called for Lukhele’s suspension after it was revealed in a reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature that he

authorized the choice of a fishy company for a R140 million contract that was found to be irregular and cancelled after R17.2 million was already paid.

The SIU reports need to be made public and criminal charges instituted against all those implicated in corruption.

I welcome the SIU’s reported recommendation that Lehloenya and Lukhele pay back R29.7 million that was overpaid to Ledla Structural Development, a company used to channel money to Diko’s company Royal Bhaka.

Swift action is needed to recover funds and clean up the deep rot in this department, which needs new political and administrative leadership untainted by previous failures.

Regards

Jack Bloom MPL
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health

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The FNB Stadium: The “Calabash” of a Nation

While the original stadium was built in 1989, its current iconic form was the result of a massive reconstruction for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The design, led by the architectural firm Boogertman + Partners, is deeply rooted in African symbolism. Its exterior is modeled after a calabash, the traditional African gourd or “melting pot.” The facade is composed of thousands of fiber-cement panels in eight different earth-toned colors, mimicking the fire and earth used to kiln the traditional pot. At night, the stadium is illuminated from below, creating the visual effect of a glowing fire beneath the “pot,” a symbol of the warmth and hospitality of the African continent.

The stadium’s capacity is a staggering 94,736, making it the largest stadium in Africa and the fourth largest in the world. But its significance transcends its scale. The site is a “theatre of history.” In 1990, just days after his release from 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela delivered his first speech to a massive, roaring crowd at the original FNB Stadium. It was here that he effectively signaled the beginning of the end of Apartheid. Decades later, in 2013, the same stadium hosted his memorial service, bringing the world together in a final farewell to “Madiba.”