JOHANNESBURG – Ithuba Holdings, operator of South Africa’s national lottery, is the latest company to be dragged into the multi-million rand Digital Vibes tender scandal.
Previous revelations by Scorpio have shown that funds from an irregular R150 million tender issued by the Health Department were laundered to entities owned by associates of former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.
In its latest findings, Scorpio has established that Ithuba Holdings donated 100,000 face masks that were originally bought using state looted funds.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Mkhize and Police Minister Bheki Cele accepted a donation of 100,000 face masks from Ithuba Holdings during a televised event.
Scorpio has now established that the masks were bought from a company called Spin Wizards Communications for a sum of R5.9 million.
The investigation shows that the funds eventually made their way into businesses owned by some of Mkhize’s associates including his son, Dedani, and former personal assistant, Tahera Mather.
Scorpio also details that the face masks had been originally sourced by Digital Vibes from a company called Tammy Taylor South Africa.
Digital Vibes had paid close to R5.2 million for the masks after receiving R8 million from the Health Department early in April 2020.
Artmotion S.Africa
