The Special Investigating Unit has identified three main syndicates, and half a dozen smaller ones, fleecing the hospital of over R2bn. From Moneyweb.
We now have a better sense of the looting at Tembisa Hospital, north of Johannesburg, that resulted in the daylight assassination of Gauteng Department of Health’s (GDOH) acting chief director of financial accounting and whistleblower Babita Deokaran.
Deokaran had flagged R850 million in suspicious tenders at Tembisa Hospital before she was killed in 2021, but the actual amounts identified by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) now exceed R2 billion.
Listen/read: Deokaran family needs corrupt networks shut down for closure (2023)
Read: The ‘business’ of assassination is booming
In a report released on Monday, the SIU said it has identified three main syndicates:
- Syndicate X, which remains unnamed as investigations continue, with procurement worth R596 million under review.
- The Maumela Syndicate – headed by Hangwani Morgan Maumela (the nephew of President Cyril Ramaphosa through a previous marriage). The SIU is reviewing 1 728 procurement bundles valued at R816.5 million linked to this syndicate. Three of the companies awarded contracts under the Maumela Syndicate have ties to Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala, who was arrested in May 2025 and charged with the attempted murder of his former partner, actress Tebogo Thobejane. He also faces charges of conspiracy and money laundering.
- The Mazibuko Syndicate – linked to Rudolph Mazibuko, which secured tenders worth R283 million from Tembisa Hospital.
“It would appear that Tembisa Hospital contributed to lavish lifestyles and the acquisition of phenomenal assets,” states the SIU report.
From what we know so far, Tembisa Hospital was a bottomless ATM for these syndicates, with looted funds ending up bankrolling luxury properties in Bantry Bay, Zimbali, Sandton, and Sandhurst, as well as luxury cars (in the case of the Maumela Syndicate) worth R223 million. One property in Bantry Bay in the Western Cape was purchased for R75 million by the Maumela Syndicate, forming part of a portfolio worth at least R151 million.
The SIU also identified properties tied to the Mazibuko Syndicate in Gauteng and the Western Cape worth R42.6 million.
Syndicate X is still under investigation and this may turn out to be the most brazen of the three.
All of the 646 (roughly half the total) procurement bundles reviewed by the SIU thus far “show countless procurement irregularities and blatant fraud,” according to the report.
The SIU has also uncovered a number of secondary conduit accounts which were used to launder funds from service providers trading with Tembisa Hospital, acquire assets, and make corrupt payments to various officials in the GDOH or the hospital itself.
What is most alarming is how these “tender irregularities” escaped every trip wire intended to halt the perpetrators in their tracks.
Deokaran was on to them and paid the ultimate price. The syndicates, armed with insider knowledge, kept their quotations below the R500 000 threshold stipulated in a National Treasury practice note. “It appears that the three-quote procurement process was intentionally abused to circumvent the tender process and to keep the authorisation level as low as possible,” says the SIU.
While service providers raked in the millions, “it is the officials on the ground, at the grassroots level, who benefited most financially from the unscrupulous looting at Tembisa Hospital.”
Listen/read:
SIU to probe more supply chain failures at Tembisa Hospital
‘Corruption ultimately makes the poor pay’ – Andy Mothibi(May 2024)
Officials at Tembisa Hospital deliberately split requests for quotations (RFQs) into smaller parcels for the same or similar goods to ensure they remained below the R500 000 trigger.
The SIU found that suppliers often provided separate invoices for different items, all issued on the same day for the same or similar amounts linked to separate purchase orders – the intention being to camouflage the ultimate beneficiary in a blizzard of paperwork and conduit accounts.
Should anyone spot the litany of irregularities falling under the R500 000 threshold, as Deokaran did, the subsequent investigation would be contained to Tembisa Hospital, where the fraudsters assumed it could be more easily managed.
“The people who killed Babita Deokaran are driving Lamborghini Urus. When things like this happen, you start appreciating why the Chinese execute people,” said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi at a media briefing on Monday.
Inside operation
When RFQs were sent out by the hospital, they went to predetermined bidders waiting in the wings – bidders whose greed was confined to Tembisa Hospital.
Unlike the Guptas, who focused primarily on giant procurement budgets in state-owned companies, the Tembisa Hospital looters were content to feast off the public purse at just one hospital. To pull this off, they had to have insiders as part of the syndicate.
The whole looting scam would not have succeeded if potential service providers had been randomly sourced from the central supplier database (CSD).
“For the exploitation of Tembisa Hospital to succeed, the selection of service providers could not be random; it had to be controlled to ensure that preselected bidders were appointed, which would ultimately benefit the kingpins,” says the SIU report.
Suppliers were not sourced from the CSD nor were they on the required commodity list. There was no rotation of service providers to keep it fair and equitable. Instead, most service providers could be traced back to a small coterie of beneficial owners.
When the SIU dug deeper, they found a trove of non-compliance issues: outdated company registration documents; incorrect director details (which helped hide the true beneficiaries); missing or outstanding bid documents; expired, fraudulent, or undated BEE [black economic empowerment] documents; missing or incomplete Standard Bidding Documents; and expired tax clearance certificates.
Yet, still the tenders rolled out to the same tight group of beneficiaries, while the then-CEO of the hospital authorised the appointment of non-compliant bidders.
The game was rigged from start to finish, which is only possible when there is no oversight.
Deokaran at the GDOH provided that oversight, and her killing would have terrified her colleagues and stifled any further enthusiasm for pursuing the investigation.
Read: Assassinations are the new way to settle scores
Many of the goods procured by the hospital were medical devices requiring registration and licensing by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra). None of the service providers held the necessary Sahpra licences.
The hospital also failed to conduct a needs analysis. Had this happened, it would have been obvious that far more than R500 000 would be needed over the course of the coming year. That would require public tenders, which would have blown up the scam.
To date, the SIU has prepared 116 referrals for disciplinary action to be instituted against 13 officials, of which 108 were delivered to the GDOH in relation to maladministration and the irregular appointment of service providers at Tembisa Hospital. One matter was held back for the preparation of civil litigation, and seven additional referrals were finalised for handover to the GDOH.
Four matters have been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority [NPA], involving GDOH officials and Tembisa Hospital service providers. A further 25 matters have been referred to the Sahpra for non-compliance, and two matters worth more than R53 million have been referred for civil litigation.
In many cases, junior staff at the hospital signed off on orders from above, making them unwitting participants in the scams.
What’s needed, says the SIU, is more regular vetting of officials and lifestyle audits to see who is living beyond their means. With this information, law enforcement should be ready to pounce.
