Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga. We cannot continue to betray the very people who made our freedom possible. The Zeal Health Innovations scandal must become the catalyst for a thorough cleansing of the DMV, writes Carl Niehaus.
I write this opinion piece with a very heavy heart and burning outrage. The recent outcome in the protracted legal battle between the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, the Acting Director-General of the Department of Military Veterans, and Zeal Health Innovations (Pty) Ltd represents far more than a single flawed tender. It is a searing indictment of systemic rot, maladministration, and the complete absence of accountability that has come to define the Department of Military Veterans (DMV). As a Member of Parliament serving on the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, and as someone who has dedicated my life to the struggle for justice and the dignity of our liberation veterans, I cannot remain silent.
The facts of this case are as damning as they are familiar. In 2015, the DMV awarded Tender DMV/SES/001/2015 to Zeal Health Innovations for the provision of healthcare and wellness services to military veterans. The tender was meant to address critical needs of our veterans, yet from the outset it was marred by irregularities. The High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria, in its 2022 judgment, meticulously exposed the rot. The contract price exceeded the available budget allocation, in direct violation of section 38(2) of the Public Finance Management Act. Proper tender evaluation processes were not followed. There were material irregularities in the composition and functioning of the bid committees. The court declared both the interim and main contracts unconstitutional, unlawful, and void ab initio.
