Johannesburg - Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has been slapped with a R10 million lawsuit for allegedly failing to provide healthcare services to former freedom fighters.
The lawsuit was brought by
Malik Vazi, a former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) combatant-turned-businessman.
Vazi, of Pretoria, was awarded a tender to provide healthcare and counselling services to former MK members, the PAC’s Azanian People’s Liberation Army and the Black Consciousness Movement’s Azanian National Liberation Army members.
He is a sole director of Zeal Health Innovations (Pty) Ltd, which provides health and wellness services to former freedom fighters. The company was awarded the tender in May to provide services to more than 16 000 military veterans.
The government has 57 000 military veterans on its database, and 16 000 of them needed healthcare. Some of them were on chronic medication while others suffer from Aids-related ailments.
The tender was advertised on the government’s tender bulletin in January and was awarded to Zeal Health in May. The firm was earlier given an interim contract – between March and May – and was paid almost R500 000.
In his urgent application, Vazi argues that the minister and the department’s acting director-general have failed to pay a single cent since Zeal Health started official duties from June to September. The amount in dispute is more than R10m.
Vazi was given a contract amounting to almost R200m for the duration of three years.
In terms of the Military Veterans Act 18 of 2011, it is the Department of Defence and Military Veterans’ responsibility to provide healthcare and wellness services to former freedom fighters.
Vazi said: “The majority of the beneficiaries are already ill and require medical treatment of one sort or another. A significant number have chronic conditions. The average age of the beneficiaries is 49.
“The department accordingly sought to appoint a service provider to provide healthcare and wellness in order to enable the department to comply with its obligations.”
He argued that the department was providing tertiary health-care services to veterans through its South African Military Health-care Services (SAMHS) – a division of the SANDF.
SAMHS operates in three military hospitals in Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein and sickbays at military bases. Vazi said the department had outsourced healthcare services after realising that some of the veterans had difficulty accessing SAMHS services because they lived far from these facilities. He said it was on that basis that his company was appointed.
According to documents in court, the previous company which rendered the service was improperly appointed.
Vazi is asking the court to force the minister to pay from June until this month.
“By this time, the number of beneficiaries registered on the chronic disease management programme has risen to 327. Some 1 096 veterans had used the primary services and 57 had used the psychological services during July alone.
“Zeal has had to pay for these services and for the medicines supplied to chronic patients, and it had incurred administrative and running costs associated with keeping the programme in place. All these costs, cumulatively amounting to several million rand, have been borne by Zeal Health from its own resources,” Vazi said.
Attempts to get comment from the department were unsuccessful. Ministry spokeswoman Joy Peter did not return emails and SMSes sent to her.
The Star