Mhlaba Memela

Mhlaba Memela

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for health Neliswa Nkonyeni says she is shocked and surprised over reports alleging the imminent arrests of her department's officials by the Scorpions.

The department is under investigation by the National Prosecuting Authority.

Nkonyeni said yesterday that media reports indicating that senior staff in her department were to be arrested soon in connection with an ultrasound scanner whose price was inflated from R400000 to R1,5million were untrue.

"No machine was or has been procured for the department. In my understanding, for anything to qualify as having been procured, the department must have acquired and in exchange made payment for such an item. No such exchange of an item and payment has taken place," she said.

In another spat, MEC for agriculture and environmental affairs Mtholephi Mthimkhulu has dismissed what he calls "misleading and inaccurate" media reports that operatives of the National Intelligence Agency had at any time in the past week conducted a raid on the offices of the department at the Cedara head office complex.

Mthimkhulu said it was not true that NIA operatives had ever set foot at the department offices in search of a person who had purportedly caused a breach of security by leaking a document to the media.