The acquisition of Cuban prophylactic Heberon for use by South African military personnel at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic using Project Thusano as the vehicle was doubtful to the extent it attracted – along with other suspicious Department of Defence (DoD) and SA National Defence Force (SANDF) acquisitions – the attention of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Findings made by Advocate Andy Mothibi’s men and women call for the Heberon order, said to be worth in excess of R250 million with R35 million “irregularly paid”, to be cancelled. In the wake of an SIU presentation to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in January, a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentarian again set the wheels in motion to establish what is happening with the Heberon investigation at the SA Police Service (SAPS) and Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi’s Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament (MP) Nicholas Gotsell, following up on charges brought by former shadow defence and military veterans minister Kobus Marais in 2022 at the Worcester police station, wants to know when cases will be ready for prosecution. In a statement, he “demanded” the Defence Ministry “fully co-operate” with the SIU, police and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
“In 2022, the DA laid criminal charges against Department of Defence officials implicated in malfeasance surrounding Operation Thusano—an agreement with Cuba costings South African taxpayers at least R1.4 billion,” Gotsell stated.
He refers to an Auditor-General report which indicated all Project Thusano expenditure since 2015 to the end of 2021 was irregular, “with no proper procurement procedures followed or deviations obtained prior to entering into supplementary agreements.”
“It was under the guise of Operation Thusano that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) irregularly procured interferon (Heberon Alpha-2B) from Cuba at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to reportedly ‘cure Covid’”.
The drug was purchased without approval for treatment of COVID-19 by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). After only 15 of 970 885 doses were used, the Department of Defence was instructed by the SAHPRA to return the medicine, yet they failed to recover $2 million used (R33 million), Gotsell said.
Apart from the Heberon acquisition, the Cuba/South Africa military co-operation agreement has seen the involvement of military expertise from the Caribbean Island country in repairing and refurbishing SA Army vehicles and SA Military Health Service (SAMHD) dental and medical equipment as well as musketry at Infantry School. Junior SANDF officers have gone to Cuba for academic, military and medical training.
“From the AG’s report, it is clear that Operation Thusano should have been cancelled as early as 2022. The SANDF cannot afford the further R1.2 billion Cuba is expected to make from Thusano,” Gotsell said, adding that the watered-down, defenceless, and resource-drained SANDF “paid the ultimate price when 13 of its soldiers were killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this past week.”
The death toll has since risen to 14, and the DA is calling for government leadership to be held accountable for this crisis.
