As the KwaZulu-Natal oncology crisis continues‚ provincial health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo has sought to deflect blame‚ pointing his finger at the company oncology machines were bought from.

On Thursday‚ he recounted how he globetrotted in his bid to have the firm that sold the department its cancer machines take responsibility for maintenance. Dhlomo said the department tried everything to get the machines up and running after Tecmed‚ a company they bought the cancer machines from in 2008‚ reneged on their maintenance obligations.

Dhlomo was trying to justify the lack of maintence of the cancer machines and the ensuing oncology crisis that followed in its wake.

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“It all started with the apparent fraud by Tecmed. In 2008‚ the department of health bought machines with maintenance contracts and Tecmed denied that maintenance was part of the deal. Tecmed demanded to be paid for maintenance separate from the maintenance contract that existed‚” said Dhlomo.

Briefing the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature‚ Dhlomo said it was reported to provincial treasury that they were paying double to Tecmed. Dhlomo said that the relations between the department and Tecmed were so bad that he also had to report the matter to former premier Zweli Mkhize.

“Through his advice‚ in 2013‚ I went to Switzerland to report to the mother company‚ Varian‚ the fraudulent activities of Tecmed‚” he recalled.

Dhlomo said the matter was then referred to the company’s head office‚ Varian USA. He said senior officials doing forensic investigation in the department went to California in 2014.

“We continued paying Tecmed double for maintenance and‚ after collecting extensive fraudulent actions‚ the matter was reported to the Hawks. I had several meetings with General Anwar Dramat [former Hawks head] on this matter. We agreed that we had a strong case against Tecmed‚” he said.

However‚ when time lapsed‚ Dhlomo said he was advised to meet the National Prosecuting Authority on several occasions.

“In our last meeting‚ the NPA made it clear that they were not going to prosecute Tecmed. With all that‚ at no stage did I ever advise the department not to service the machines. It would have to be Techmed or any other service provider‚” he said.

Dhlomo said he did all this knowing that the procurement of services including equipment in the department was the sole responsibility of the head of department. He admitted that the broken machines had a huge strain on the department’s personnel.

He said he often received phone calls from frustrated clinicians and patients and that on further enquiring he realised that the CEOs of hospitals had run short of excuses to defend the department for not repairing or purchasing machines.

“Head office has not efficiently dealt with this matter resulting in a build-up of backlog of patients to be treated‚ increasing low morale and increasing frustration of doctors and nurses treating patients. We do not have all the information as to why specialising doctors resigned but machines at Addington (hospital) were not serviced and the situation made specialists to resign‚” he said.

He said the issue of Tecmed was picked as irregular expenditure and that the breakdown of relations with the firm meant the machines were not maintained.

In 2015 KZN Oncology Company was later appointed to service the machines after the Tecmed contract had ended. But this was in violation of the PFMA and it has been nullified. The department‚ Dhlomo said‚ was now dealing directly with the Varian which was assessing oncology machines at Addington Hospital in Durban.