{"id":50213,"date":"2023-06-21T11:26:21","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T11:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/senior-health-dept-official-popo-maja-charged-with-corruption-over-r140m-digital-vibes-contract"},"modified":"2023-06-21T12:43:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T12:43:52","slug":"senior-health-dept-official-popo-maja-charged-with-corruption-over-r140m-digital-vibes-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/senior-health-dept-official-popo-maja-charged-with-corruption-over-r140m-digital-vibes-contract","title":{"rendered":"Senior health dept official Popo Maja charged with corruption over R140m Digital Vibes contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Popo Maja, the director of communications at the national Department of Health, has appeared in court on corruption charges related to a tender awarded to Digital Vibes.<\/p>\n

Maja appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday morning after handing himself over to the police.<\/p>\n

He has been charged with two counts of corruption for his alleged role in awarding a contract worth more than R140 million to Digital Vibes to provide communication services to the department for the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme.<\/p>\n

According to the charge sheet, Maja was part of the bid evaluation committee, which assessed the different bids for the tender.<\/p>\n

It’s alleged that he was paid two bribes amounting to R15 000 during this process.<\/p>\n

According to the charge sheet, the money for the alleged bribes flowed from a Digital Vibes bank account into another account owed by Tahera Mather.<\/p>\n

From there, the money was allegedly deposited into Maja’s bank account.<\/p>\n

The State has accused Mather of being the true owner of Digital Vibes.<\/p>\n

Maja was sanctioned by the department last July<\/b> for his involvement in awarding the tender to Digital Vibes.<\/p>\n

One of the charges he faced in an internal disciplinary hearing was gross misconduct as a member of the bid evaluation committee, City Press<\/b> reported.<\/p>\n

Maja was found guilty of two charges against him, including initiating the request to extend the service-level agreement with Digital Vibes.<\/p>\n

He was subsequently demoted as the department’s spokesperson.<\/p>\n

He was issued a final written warning and demoted one salary level. Both sanctions were made valid for 12 months.<\/p>\n

Former health minister Zweli Mkhize resigned over the Digital Vibes scandal after it was claimed that he was linked to the company’s alleged owners, Mather and Naadhira Mitha.<\/p>\n

The Special Investigating Unit is probing the matter.<\/p>\n

Maja’s case is the second investigation linked to Digital Vibes that has come before the court.<\/p>\n

Lizeka Tonjeni<\/b>, an employee of the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA), is on trial for allegedly accepting a bribe from Digital Vibes to help the company bag a R3.9-million contract from the state organisation.<\/p>\n

MISA falls under the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs..<\/p>\n

Mkhize was the department’s minister at the time the contract was awarded.<\/p>\n

No allegations have been levelled against Mather, Mitha or Mkhize in the Tonjeni case.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Popo Maja, the director of communications at the national Department of Health, has appeared in court on corruption charges related to a tender awarded to Digital Vibes. Maja appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday morning after handing himself over to the police. He has been charged with two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,377],"tags":[274,315,2372,579,309,5583,554,275],"class_list":["post-50213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-digital-vibes","tag-gauteng","tag-popo-maja","tag-pretoria","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSenior health dept official Popo Maja charged with corruption over R140m Digital Vibes contract - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Popo Maja, the director of communications at the national Department of Health, has appeared in court on corruption char ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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