Scopa Chairperson, Job Dliso, tells OFM News the committee is looking forward to imminent arrests in these cases. According to Dliso, of the 43 cases that were reported to police and the Directorate for Priority Crime, commonly known as the Hawks, 18 cases were finalised in October 2019 and legal action has been launched in those finalised matters. He says the investigation into the provincial health department’s controversial deal with Gupta-linked service provider, Mediosa, in which the company pocketed R30 million for a single mobile clinic, forms part of the investigations that have been finalised.

Dliso would not elaborate on what progess has been made specifically in those matters.

Some of the cases under the spotlight in this meeting, include the police investigation into the controversial Taung Hotel School project, in which the North West Department of Tourism spent just under R8 million on the school’s boom gate system and fence alone. The Department acquired the building for development for R5 million.

About 34 of the cases presented during the meeting were opened by the inter-ministerial task team led by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The task team was established following violent unrest that was centred in the North West capital, Mahikeng, in April 2018. The task team was established prior to the cabinet’s decision to invoke Section 100 (1) (b) of the Constitution of 1996, which effectively placed the province under administration.

The briefing comes soon after the dismissal of provincial health department head, Thabo Lekalakala. The former department head is most known for spearheading the department’s controversial deal with Gupta-linked company, Mediosa, in which the company pocketed R30 million as a down payment for a single mobile clinic. Lekalakala, and former Finance MEC and current Member of Parliament, Wendy Nelson, are also at the centre of a fraud case centred on Lekalakala’s irregular appointment in 2014.

OFM News