Former health minister Zweli Mkhize ‘s name has surfaced again in a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation which is probing how a KwaZulu-Natal provincial treasury tender increased from R3.5 million to R114 million.
News24 revealed that and SIU investigation, completed in February last year, found that a contract for the provision of forensic risk services called Operation Unembeza which was awarded to Universal Security Services (USS) in September 2007 by the provincial treasury, was irregular. Dr Zweli Mkhize was the MEC for finance when the contract was awarded.
An affidavit by an SIU investigator stated that Sipho Shabalala, the KZN treasury’s former head, wrote a letter to Mkhize motivating for Operation Unembeza to be implemented to all provincial government departments. There is no clarity whether Mkhize responded to the motivational letter.
Project Unembeza was rolled out to all provincial government departments shortly after the motivation letter was sent to Mkhize, with the costs of the project moving from R3.5 million to R114 million.
“The appointment of USS was further extended when a letter was written to the MEC Dr ZL Mkhize, Minister of finance and economic development, on 8 February 2008by Mr Shabalala. This letter motivated Project Unembeza to be rolled out to all provincial departments and was allocated other budgets for the next few years,” the investigator’s affidavit said.
The reported further alleged that the SIU found that the contract was awarded irregularly and was flawed.
Source: News24, The Citizen, image from Twitter