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Former President Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering charges relating to a multi-billion rand arms deal when he was deputy president.

Zuma, who was president between 2009 and 2018, faces 18 charges relating to the 1999 deal. He has rejected the charges and says he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt by a rival faction of the ruling African National Congress.

Zuma, who also faces a separate inquiry into corruption during his time as president, is accused of accepting R500 000 annually from French arms company Thales, in exchange for protecting the company from an investigation into the deal.

"I plead not guilty," he said, staring into space, after the prosecutor read out all the charges.

Zuma's defence team is calling for the recusal of state prosecutor Billy Downer , on the grounds that he has "no title to prosecute". The prosecution requested more time to make a response to that call, so it will not be dealt with on Wednesday but rather on July 19, said the presiding judge.

Thales was known as Thomson-CSF at the time of the deal. It has said it had no knowledge of any transgressions by any of its employees in relation to the award of the contracts. Its representative in court also pleaded not guilty to the racketeering, corruption and money laundering charges the company faced.

The National Prosecuting Authority filed the charges against Zuma more than a decade ago, set them aside just before he successfully ran for president in 2009, then reinstated them a month after he resigned in early 2018.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has argued that since he did not personally benefit from an irregularly awarded contract to Digital Vibes by the Department of Health (DoH), there is no need for him to step aside.

Calls for Mkhize to step aside from his role come as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probes an expose by the Daily Maverick that his department irregularly awarded a R150-million contract in 2019 to Digital Vibes to provide communication services for government’s National Health Insurance and Covid-19 response.

Digital Vibes is apparently controlled by Mkhize’s former spokesperson Tahera Mather and former personal assistant Naadhira Mitha .

The SIU said on Tuesday that it was committed to concluding the investigation by the end of June.

In a media briefing on Wednesday, Mkhize said his department had cooperated and ensured that there were no obstructions to the investigation.

He confirmed that the Daily Maverick report, which said the awarding of the Digital Vibes contract by the DoH was irregular, as confirmed by the Auditor General, was accurate.

The investigation found that the tender bidding process was in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act and the process of appointing Digital Vibes was irregular.

The investigation points to inconsistencies in the bid committees, a lack of disclosure of conflict of interest and an amount of some R37-million paid to Digital Vibes that constitutes fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

In respect to Covid-19-related communications work that was performed by Digital Vibes, the investigators noted that the service provider received requests for work from the DoH prior to their contract being expanded to include Covid-19 communication.

These requests resulted in a financial commitment of some R35-million that the department ended up paying after the expansion was approved.

The investigators, therefore, concluded that any amount which was paid to Digital Vibes for any work done in relation to Covid-19 communication, prior to the approval of the expansion to include Covid-19 work, was irregular as the expenditure was incurred in contravention of Treasury Regulations.

Mkhize said as Minister his obligation was to declare any conflict of interest when it arose and in this instance, he had not identified any conflict of interest.

He denied being personal friends with Mather and Mitha; however, he said they were certainly comrades as he had worked with them during the course of his political and official duties.

“I did not participate in the company’s appointment process. I did not in any way influence the selection of employees or consultants of the company. Even at a departmental level, the Minister is only informed once the whole procurement and administrative process has been concluded,” he explained.

He said he did not have the benefit of seeing the invoices that were paid by the department, and added that he was saddened that a contract that was supposed to have fulfilled public good had now violated constitutional principles that were meant to be adhered to by his department.

“Personally, I must express my sense of shock at the figures that have now been disclosed in the report as constituting irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mkhize confirmed that the director-general had formally reported the matter to National Treasury, as required, and the process of consequence management, such as disciplinary action against implicated individuals, was also underway.

He said that legal processes to recover funds that the department should not have paid had also begun.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has committed to finalising an investigation into a R150-million questionable contract awarded by the Department of Health.

According to a report by the Daily Maverick, the Department of Health paid for services linked to the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme and the government's response to Covid-19.

The contract allegedly saw around R150-million paid to a communications agency Digital Vibes for questionable services. The company is reportedly controlled by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize 's former personal spokesperson, Tahera Mather , and former personal assistant, Naadhira Mitha , although the two are not listed as directors.

In February, the Daily Maverick published allegations of how Digital Vibes paid Mather and Mitha soon after the company scored an emergency R82-million contract with the health department for services related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The amount involved has since ballooned to around R150-million.

Soon after the exposé, Mkhize said the department's director-general, Sandile Buthelezi , had flagged the contract in January and advised that it be probed by an external investigator.

The contract has subsequently been suspended and is being investigated by the SIU.

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit was still looking into the matter under the proclamation allowing the investigation of Covid-19 procurement corruption and fraud.

He added that SIU head Andy Mothibi had addressed media at an event in Cape Town on Monday and had confirmed the allegations had been brought to his attention.

Kganyago added that Mothibi had committed to concluding the investigation by the end of June.

"The investigation is at an advanced stage. We have committed to finishing it by the end of June. All other cases are expected to be completed by August, but we have committed to fast track [the Digital Vibes] investigation," he said.

On Monday, the health department stated that, as soon as a final report was available, the outcomes, findings and recommendations would be shared with members of the public.

"We wish to assure you that that commitment remains. We are also confident that the SIU continues to follow its investigation process as proclaimed," the statement read.

The department added that its earlier silence had been to ensure there was "no interference with the ongoing investigations".

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture hopes to conclude with all oral evidence by next week, with President Cyril Ramaphosa set to be the last witness to present oral evidence.

Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said on Tuesday that where the commission needed to consider matters for public proceedings it would do so.

Applications for leave to cross-examine past witnesses would be given the allotted time, he said.

“The commission wishes to wrap up its oral evidence because by the end, it will have covered all the important evidence relating to the matters that were included in the public protector’s report that gave rise to this commission,” Zondo said.

Ramaphosa will appear before the commission on May 31 and June 1 to present evidence in his capacity as President of the country and as Deputy President during former President Jacob Zuma ’s tenure.

However, Zondo said Ramaphosa may be questioned on outstanding matters from when he appeared at the commission in April, in his capacity as President of the African National Congress.

Zondo will also ask the North Gauteng High Court for time for the commission to write up its report from the evidence presented since the commission began its work in August 2018.

“It will be necessary to apply to the high court for a limited extension, but that will now be for the preparation of the report because during the two months, April and May, although a lot of work in regard to the analysis of evidence has been going on behind the scenes, that will not enable us to have the report by the end of June,” Zondo said.

Independent anti-corruption organisation Transparency International (TI) said on Tuesday that there are large discrepancies in the prices paid for Covid-19 vaccines, revealing that upper-middle income countries like South Africa paid an average of 25% more per dose for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, compared with high income economies, such as the US and the European Union.

South Africa halted the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII), in February after its efficacy to treat the SARS-CoV-2 variant of the Covid-19 virus was called into question.

South Africa sold its Oxford/AstraZeneca doses to the African Union and was refunded by the SII for other doses that were ordered but not yet delivered.

TI’s latest report ‘For Whose Benefit?’ unpacks the development and sale of the top 20 Covid-19 vaccines and has revealed a disturbing trend of poor transparency in relation to Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials and in contracts between vaccine developers and governments.

"Analysis of prices sourced from UNICEF’s Market analysis dashboard, indicates concerning price variation both as a whole and when assessing specific vaccines. For example, for the AstraZeneca developed vaccine, the dashboard showed that on average high-income economies are paying the least at USD 6.26 per dose, second are the lower-middle income economies at USD 6.72, and the most spent on vaccines is by upper-middle economies at USD 7.81," the TI study revealed.

Of the 183 contracts analysed for 12 Covid-19 vaccines, only 7% of contracts were published through official channels and just one contract was published without redactions.

TI noted that information on pricing is incomplete in all formally published contracts other than those of the Dominican Republic and the US.

TI’s Global Health Programme head Jonathan Cushing said the study’s results made for worrying reading and carry important implications not just for the Covid-19 response, but also for future health emergencies.

“Hiding contracts from public view or publishing documents filled with redacted text means we don’t know what governments have signed up to. Given the huge amounts of public money invested in research and development around the world, citizens have right to know everything about the vaccines their taxes helped to fund,” he said.

TI suggests that all governments that have bought vaccines publish their contracts.

CLINCIAL TRIALS

TI’s study concluded that clinical trial transparency is the only way to monitor the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

It called for legislation for the pre-registration of all clinical trials and for the summary results to be published within 12 months of their completion.

TI worries that a lack of transparency could exacerbate vaccine hesitancy, with one-third of the global population already unwilling to take a Covid-19 vaccine.

“The lack of publicly accessible data creates space for misleading and potentially dangerous half-truths, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, which in turn contribute to vaccine hesitancy,” Cushing said.

TI’s study of clinical trials looked at 86 registered trials across the top 20 vaccines.

Only 45% of these trials had been announced, and of this 41% had provided only top-level results through a press release or press conference, leaving the full data unavailable for scrutiny.

Clinical trial protocols had been published for only 12% of trials, with no publicly accessible protocols for 885 of the registered trials.

“The early sharing of clinical trial protocols is important, as it enables external expert scrutiny of methodology and design integrity to highlight potential bias and can also deter the selective reporting of results,” TI said.

Cushing warned that the lack of transparency of many clinical trials combined with the huge financial incentives for producing effective treatments leaves the door wide open for selective reporting of results or outright data manipulation.

TI has urged ...

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that there is a huge task at hand to build a better life for all the people of Africa as the continent gears up to celebrate Africa Day on Tuesday.

In his weekly newsletter to the nation Ramaphosa said Africans had become accustomed to seeing images such as the one seen last week of a young boy adrift off the coast of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

According to relief organisations more than 20 000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2014.

“As we observe Africa Day tomorrow, these tragic stories remind us of the huge task we have to build a better life for all the people of Africa. While we celebrate the progress we have made towards building a peaceful and prosperous continent, events in faraway North Africa show that we still have a long way to go,” Ramaphosa said.

He said life was difficult for millions of people in Africa and that limited opportunities lead to people risking their lives by crossing the sea in pursuit of a better future.

He added that the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic had made people already suffering from the effects of conflict, under-development and poverty even more vulnerable.

African economies had been severely damaged and growth prospects were greatly diminished, he pointed out, warning that many of the continent’s developmental gains may be reversed as the fight against the pandemic takes precedence over other national priorities such as poverty eradication.

He noted that while low-income countries were especially vulnerable, middle income countries, such as South Africa, had also been severely hit.

Ramaphosa shared that to support the continent’s economic recovery, African governments have been working through the African Union (AU) to mobilise significant financing to meet their developmental goals.

Last week, he joined several African leaders at a summit in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the financing of African economies post-Covid-19.

At the summit, South Africa reiterated its support for a comprehensive and robust economic stimulus package for Africa to aid the recovery.

Ramaphosa said this, however, should not be a substitute for official development aid.

Financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered to support low- and middle-income countries and called for further measures to support vulnerable countries.

This would include an allocation by the IMF of Special Drawing Rights, where on the basis of membership quotas, around $33-billion would be released to increase the reserves of African countries.

However, African leaders have argued that $33-billion will not be enough for the challenges across the continent.

As the more developed economies are set to receive much of the $650-billion of Special Drawing Rights, Ramaphosa said African leaders believe that 25%, or $162.5-billion, should be made available to African countries.

Other measures would include increased concessional financing by international institutions and development agencies, and additional measures led by the G20 countries to provide African countries with debt relief.

“In what was described as a New Deal for Africa, leaders and international organisations recognised that we share a collective responsibility to implement financial relief measures for African countries in distress,” he said.

Covid-19 has shown the importance of collaboration between African countries and international partners, he said, adding that gains as a continent have come about through Africa’s own capabilities and through working with the international community.

Ramaphosa said African countries wanted to help themselves and not be told what was good for them.

“The principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ should be applied. It is important that we affirm our sovereignty as free and independent States capable of determining the destiny of our continent,” he affirmed.

An alleged Covid-19 response scandal has seen around R150-million paid to a communication agency for questionable services, and the former personal spokesperson of Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has been implicated.

According to a report by the Daily Maverick, the Department of Health paid Digital Vibes more than R150-million for services linked to the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme and government's response to Covid-19. The company is reportedly controlled by Mkhize's former personal spokesperson Tahera Mather and former personal assistant Naadhira Mitha , though the two are not listed as directors.

News24 was unable to reach Mitha at the time of publication.

Mather declined to comment.

Department of Health spokesperson Popo Maja declined to comment, saying the department was investigating the matter.

Of the funds received by Digital Vibes, a reported R90-million was allegedly channelled to entities set up by Mather and Mitha, as well as businesses and personal accounts of Mather's immediate family. Only around R40-million was reportedly recorded on company receipts for legitimate services provided and other costs related to the contract.

The company reportedly charged the department for arranging media briefings, interviews and public engagements – something usually handled by the department's communication staff. The Daily Maverick report also found the company added significant mark-ups to services provided by subcontractors.

The report estimated that less than R40-million (27% of the total earnings) went towards legitimate expenses on the contract, such as salaries, payment for awareness adverts, design work and rent.

In February, the Daily Maverick published allegations of how Digital Vibes paid Mather and Mitha soon after the company scored an emergency R82-million contract with the health department for services related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The amount involved has since ballooned to around R150-million.

Soon after the exposé, Mkhize said the department's Director-General Sandile Buthelezi had flagged the contract in January and advised that it be probed by an external investigator.

The minister said Buthelezi told him the Auditor-General of South Africa had found the contract was awarded irregularly.

The contract has subsequently been suspended and is being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit.

President Cyril Ramaphosa explained on Monday that effective and comprehensive global vaccination is essential to ending the pandemic, calling for an urgent increase in vaccine production across the world, including in low- and middle-income countries.

Ramaphosa was addressing the seventy-fourth World Health Assembly (WHA74) taking place between May 24 and June 1.

He said millions of people in wealthier nations had been vaccinated, while billions of people in poorer countries still wait and are still vulnerable to infection, disease and death.

“We all need to work together to correct this. This is not only a moral imperative. Effective and comprehensive global vaccination is vital to ending the pandemic,” he said.

Ramaphosa said millions of lives had been lost, while every sphere of life had been disrupted, and citizens of every country had had to endure severe hardship.

He added that the pandemic had made individuals more aware of their strengths and vulnerabilities.

“It has also demonstrated how interconnected we are and how dependent we are on each other for our health and well-being,” he said.

Ramaphosa explained that ending the pandemic required individuals to urgently attend to the huge divide in the provision of the Covid-19 vaccines to people across the world.

FUNDING PARTNERS AND THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

Ramaphosa called on all leaders to continue to support the development of vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and other essential needs so that the $18.5-billion needed to ensure that appropriate tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment reach all parts of the globe.

He said all countries must support the call for a limited waiver on intellectual property rights as a mechanism to promote rapid, equitable access, to allow countries to use intellectual property, share technologies to produce vaccines and therapeutics, lower prices and expedite distribution to everyone, everywhere.

“As we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, we need to build more robust pandemic response systems. We need to give attention to the establishment of a Global Health Council that collaborates with the WHO to support regional and national response mechanisms. We need to invest in our national health systems, understanding that these are vital to the health of our people and the sustainability of our economies,” said Ramaphosa.

Public interest law centre SECTION27 expressed its disappointment at the postponement of the Limpopo schools pit toilets case that was set to be heard in the Limpopo Division of the South African High Court on Monday.

In 2018 the court ordered that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) must file plans to eradicate pit toilets and provide the court with an updated audit of sanitation needs at schools in the province.

SECTION27 is asking the court to rule that the DBE’s and the LDOE’s “plan” to abolish pit toilets is unconstitutional.

“SECTION27 is extremely disappointed that this matter is not going ahead on Monday. We will be asking for a date at the soonest possible opportunity for this matter to be heard,” said SECTION27 head of education rights programme Dr Faranaaz Veriava .

The matter was set down for Monday, however that date was not confirmed, with the presiding judge unavailable on that date.

“We are awaiting to receive an alternative court hearing date from the High Court in Polokwane. Given the seriousness of the matter, and because learners’ rights are at stake, we are requesting a preferential date. We will communicate the new dates and details with media in due course,” she said.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament (MP) and former shadow Minister of Communications Phumzile van Damme has made it clear that she will not be launching any attacks on the party after she turned in her resignation as MP to the National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise , on Thursday.

Van Damme said she was resigning as MP on her own terms, having made her own decision and that she was not joining another political party. She stressed that she was still a DA member.

“This was not an easy decision to make and it is done with a heavy heart. I have had a full and life-shaping journey as a DA activist, staff member, the longest serving National Spokesperson from 2014 to 2018, and Shadow Minister, which I put my all into,” she said.

She stressed that her resignation as MP was not because the DA is a “racist party” but rather she resigned because of “a clique of individuals”. She would not go further into the matter and said she would not be giving interviews.

She added that should the party choose to destroy her reputation and impugn her character, she would not engage in a back-and-forth.

“My good record of service and work speaks for itself, and I will not partake in any gun fights I am called to be part of,” she said,

Van Damme thanked members of the public who stood with her during her time as an MP.