Senior Health official implicated in corruption of Digital Vibes saga

A senior Health official, Joseph Themba Popo Maja (63), implicated in the Digital Vibes Covid-19 procurement saga, appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court today, Wednesday, 21 June.

HOW MUCH THE SENIOR HEALTH OFFICIAL POCKETED

He is facing charges of two counts of corruption worth R15 000, a Schedule 1 offence.

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According to NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana, the Senior Health official is employed as a Cluster Manager in Communications at the National Department of Health. It is alleged that in 2019, Maja was appointed as a member of the Bid Specification and Bid Evaluation Committee.

“The committee was tasked to appoint a service provider to provide communication services in relation to the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill.”

Mahanjana

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HOW MAJA WAS INFLUENTIAL IN THE DIGITAL VIBES SAGA

It is alleged that on 01 November 2019 the Bid Evaluation Committee members set to evaluate bidders for functional and technical evaluation after Digital Vibes was recommended to be contracted the bid amount of over R141 million, for a period of 12 months. The same day the committee sat, it is alleged that an amount of R10 000 was paid into Maja’s personal bank account, from the Digital Vibes bank account.  A month later on 05 December 2019 an amount of R 5000 was paid again to his personal account by Digital Vibes.

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DEFENCE GET ACCUSED BAIL HALVED

Mahanjana said the prosecutor, Phumla Dwane-Alpman, did not oppose bail in the matter.

“However, she asked the court to set an amount of  R10 000 bail with conditions that Maja should hand in his private and official passport to the investigating officer, that he should inform the investigating officer when travelling outside Gauteng and should not interfere with state witnesses,” she explained.

“However, his attorney told the court that Maja was already demoted at work in relation to the same matter and can only afford R5000.  He also told the court that Maja has been cooperating with the state since the inception of the matter, therefore he was not a flight risk,” Mahanjana further explained.

The Senior Health official was then granted bail of R5000 by the court.

The matter was postponed to 19 July 2023 for disclosure of contents of the docket.

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