Limpopo Health officials have, for the past 17 months, ignored a request to charge a supply chain employee who joined the department when he was facing disciplinary action from his former employer.

The department employed Ntshane Maphoto from the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure, where he was accused of preferential treatment when he hired a company called Rachodi Enterprise to render maintenance work at the department’s Polokwane regional office. 

This despite the company not being registered on the National Treasury’s central supplier database.

City Press reports that the then acting DG, Imtiaz Fazel, wrote to former Limpopo Health HOD, Thokozani Mhlongo, in March 2022, informing her of an investigation’s finding that Maphoto contravened supply chain processes, code of conduct of supply chain management and the Constitution.

City Press in July reported that the department was accused of awarding irregular multimillion-rand tenders to supply coal for boilers in more than 14 hospitals.

The department, however, awarded the fire-tube boiler tenders worth almost R9m to some hospitals that did not use coal.

The winning bidders complained that they were awarded the tenders for hospitals without coal facilities and also discovered that most of the hospitals were using boilers that were not working.

Full City Press report