With billions allocated to fight the biggest public health emergency of our times, and with eased regulations on procurement, bent civil servants and connected companies have taken the gap.
How did an emergency health procurement budget of about R50-billion become a cadres’ feast?
Here’s one story that illustrates the trend. Harvey Sicelo Buthelezi is the perfect example of a connected cadre. His CV is dotted with jobs in government and executive jobs outside of government, but which need political connectivity.
According to his LinkedIn profile, in July 2020, he listed as his key role the job of executive chairman of a company called HSB (his initials) Mercantile. That company won Covid-19 contracts worth millions of rand between March and July – and it is one of 90 contracts being probed for malfeasance by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The Sunday Times reported that Buthelezi received contracts worth R873-million, but the Daily Maverick list below suggests a smaller quantum and shows the range of goods he supplied to the government.
Buthelezi is also CEO of the HSB Advisory Group which lists its interests as civil infrastructure, property, minerals and energy; before that, Buthelezi was Group COO…
