Presidential residency spokeswoman redeployed after PPE graft probe

The ex-spokeswoman of South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, on leave since July 2020 over alleged links to unlawful coronavirus contracts, has been given a warning and redeployed to a different post, the presidency said Tuesday.

Khusela Diko was under investigation following media reports claiming a company owned by her late husband was irregularly awarded a multimillion-rand contract to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals last year.

Both had denied wrongdoing.

South Africa’s presidency on Tuesday said it had finalised a “disciplinary process” against Diko “for her failure to disclose her interests in certain companies”.

Diko “has been served with a written warning for this offence”, it said in a statement, adding that she would return “to a different position in the public service”.

The allegations surrounding Diko and her husband were among the first in a flurry of coronavirus-linked scandals that surfaced in South Africa last year.

Public outrage over the reports pushed Ramaphosa to step up his fight against rampant graft, one of his key electoral promises.

Diko, who is currently on maternity leave, was married to a chief of the AmaBhaca kingdom, Madzikane II Thandisizwe Diko.

He unexpectedly succumbed to a short illness in February.

Agence France-Presse

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)