Nearly R2-million taken from the Department of Health’s Digital Vibes contract was used to repay a loan for a farm owned by former health minister Zweli Mkhize’s wife, the Daily Maverick reported.
This raised the total for the Mkhize family’s allegedly corrupt share of the controversial contract to nearly R9-million.
The Daily Maverick’s Pieter-Louis Myburgh reported that Mkhize faced controversy 11 years ago. Then as MEC for finance and economic development in KwaZulu-Natal, the state-owned Ithala Development Finance Corporation granted an R11.8-million loan to his wife to buy a farm near Pietermaritzburg.
At the time Mkhize denied claims that he had influenced the decision. He said his wife, Dr May Mkhize, was a professional businesswoman in her own right.
But the Daily Maverick concluded that “May Mkhize’s business activities are at least partly funded through dubious transactions linked to her husband’s political career”.
The report said that some R1.6-million was funneled from the Digital Vibes contract to businesses owned by the Mkhizes’ son, Dedani.
Speaking through the attorney representing him at a special tribunal, Dedani Mkhize strongly denied he had received any such cash payments.
“These allegations are untrue and this will be proven in due course through a court process and not newspapers,” said the attorney.
Image source: @DrZweliMkhize
