[imagesource: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius]

As a country, we’ve all grown frightfully blasé regarding stories of blatant corruption in our highest offices.

I usually check the amount, and if it hasn’t hit the R10 million mark it’s a shrug of the shoulders and on with the day.

Sometimes, though, you read a story and it just really, really pisses you off, and The Daily Maverick’s exposé of our Department of Health’s Digital Vibes scandal is one of those.

Let’s ‘enjoy’ a brief recap:

Close associates of Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and other third parties pocketed roughly R90-million in suspicious payments emanating from a R150-million Covid-19 and National Health Insurance communications contract.

In what may turn out to be the most shocking case of alleged Covid-19 looting uncovered to date, contractor Digital Vibes even charged the Department of Health millions of rands for scheduling Mkhize’s media briefings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yes, our very own Department of Health, spearheaded by our very own Minister of Health, was helping people plunder funds in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

So much about that is sickening, but what’s really disturbing is just how brazen it all was, as if those involved thought they would never be held to account.

One of the consultancies which may have received cash has Mkhize’s daughter listed as a co-director, and is simply named Aweh Consulting.

I’m glad they went with the ‘h’ at the end (my preferred spelling), but that’s taking the piss.

Or how about the Richards Bay business which received R4,8 million from Digital Vibes, which is called – wait for it – ‘Bevels Communications and Digiatal Media’.

That spelling error features in the company’s actual name, as registered at the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

They couldn’t even register the name properly, and the company has no track record as a legitimate business.

Money pocketed by Digital Vibes was also used to fund shopping sprees for luxury clothing brands, spa treatments, home renovations, and more.

Zapiro was clearly also unimpressed, and waded into the mix with a cartoon published yesterday on The Daily Maverick:

That’s a reference to the fact that Digital Vibes charged the Department of Health R3,65 million for Mkhize’s appearance on a SABC news bulletin in December 2020 to announce South Africa’s second wave of COVID-19 infections.

It’s a pandemic. It’s the national broadcaster. There is no need to pay a middle man millions to facilitate this.

The two biggest beneficiaries of this looted money are the former personal spokesperson of Mkhize, Tahera Mather, and his former personal assistant, Naadhira Mitha.

Now he’s suddenly trying to distance himself from them, changing his tune during a media briefing yesterday. This from The Citizen:

Mkhize said he was not friends with both Mather and Mitha, who work for Digital Vibes, after reports the company received media liaison contracts improperly. However, he admitted that the pair were his comrades…

“I do not regard any of these individuals whose names have been mentioned publicly, as personal friends. They are certainly my comrades, I have worked with them in the ordinary course of my political or official duties and this is not unusual.”

Strange, that, because The Daily Maverick’s investigation turned up a number of photos featuring Mkhize beaming whilst stood alongside Mather and Mitha.

It’s worth reading that full investigation here, but let’s end with a depressingly good pun – the Department of Wealth:

[sources:dailymav&dailymav&citizen]