A R152-million contract with the Maziya–On Site Gas Systems joint venture (JV) to supply hospital oxygen plants has quietly remained with the Independent Development Trust (IDT) – despite public assurances from health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi that the entire tender had been taken away from the IDT.
Following reporting by amaBhungane and Daily Maverick, which raised numerous red flags about the IDT’s adjudication and prompted a PwC investigation into the Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) tender, Motsoaledi pledged to terminate the IDT-managed process and purported to have it transferred to the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) to oversee afresh.
The IDT had awarded some 55 hospital sites split between two bidders: Bulkeng, which was awarded a contract for R428-million, and Maziya, which was awarded a contract worth R152-million.
Now it has emerged that the Maziya contract has remained in place with the IDT, despite the initial claim that the DBSA would take over, review and likely rerun the whole process.
While the DBSA has gone on open tender for a new contractor, it appears that the Maziya contract, covering some ten hospital sites, has somehow been excluded from the transfer and instead has been handed back to the IDT to manage.
When and why this happened is not clear.
‘Left as it was’
Spokesperson for the National Department of Health (NDOH), Foster Mohale, told amaBhungane the health minister had asked that the whole PSA project be transferred to the DBSA.
“After the transfer, the DBSA then advised that the Maziya contract should not be transferred to them because at that time nobody had yet alleged any anomaly, malfeasance or flaws regarding the Maziya contract.
“The DBSA was worried that, legally, Maziya could interdict the process and stop the DBSA from executing the whole PSA project. That would have defeated the whole process of our hospitals producing their own oxygen timeously. The Maziya contract was then left as it was.”
Yet this explanation doesn’t add up.
Firstly, neither the department nor the DBSA would say whether they had taken legal advice about the probity of the Maziya contract, or the risk of litigation should it be cancelled like the Bulkeng one was. Neither did they indicate that Maziya had threatened legal action.
Both amaBhungane’s investigations – and the summary of the PwC report released by Public Works minister Dean Macpherson – raised concerns about flaws in the whole tender process run by the IDT. It resulted in the awards to both Maziya and Bulkeng, although most of the material issues flagged focused on Bulkeng.
Secondly, the contract signed between the NDOH and DBSA as recently as 12 August 2025 made provision for the entire IDT project to be handed over to the DBSA, including the hospital sites previously awarded to Maziya.
The contract also provided for an option for the DBSA to retain service providers previously appointed by IDT – such as Maziya.
The contract states, “This must only be done after the DBSA has conducted due diligence on the procurement processes of the Service Providers appointed by IDT and their performance. The cession process needs the endorsement of NDOH”.
In other words, if the Maziya award was above board, then the DBSA was free to simply take over the existing contract with Maziya.
Yet this did not happen, and the DBSA failed to answer our question as to whether they did conduct this due diligence before deciding not to take over Maziya’s contract.
Neither is it clear that NDOH and DBSA have concluded a written and signed variation to the contract as required.
The version shared with amaBhungane on 18 September 2025 – along with the statement confirming Maziya’s contract remained “as it was” – still confers on the DBSA responsibility for all 55 sites.
Maziya told us, “Our bid, and our subsequent contract as the Maziya On-Site Gas Systems Joint Venture concluded with the IDT thereafter, being found to be above reproach and untainted, which in turn is the reason why such contract still subsists, uncancelled”.
Perhaps no fault can be laid at Maziya’s door, yet amaBhungane’s review of IDT’s award process shows chaotic procurement, shifting costs and nonsensical hospital allocations.
The IDT did not respond to our questions.
Red flags
Funded by the Global Fund, the plan’s projected budget ballooned from R216-million to R836-million.
According to the IDT, this final total budget encompassed contractor costs as well as maintenance costs for a 36-month period and was inclusive of all applicable fees (i.e. professional consultants), IDT management fees and VAT.
Amid the cost surge, we found that Bulkeng, the larger contractor, appeared to have falsified signatures, used an Original Equipment Manufacturer’s South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) certificate without authorisation and lacked the necessary Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grading to carry out the work.
Days after amaBhungane interviewed Bulkeng’s director, Nkosinathi Ndlovu, he was found dead. Police are still investigating.
But the concerns were not limited to Bulkeng.
As amaBhungane’s own reporting revealed, an August 2023 meeting held by the project’s steering committee decided that it would be best to restart the whole procurement process, citing the major cost escalations and problems with the tender specifications. They were ignored.
Despite internal warnings to restart the process, then-IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka (now suspended) and Health DG Dr Sandile Buthelezi pushed the deal through.
PwC’s report described missing minutes, incomplete committees, undocumented scoring and opaque negotiations.
Public works minister, Dean Macpherson, later said the IDT inflated the budget “without a single documented approval or value-for-money assessment.”
Disciplinary action was recommended against Malaka, supply chain head Dr Molebedi Sisi, and several IDT officials.
A November 2024 internal probe by Public Works flagged further discrepancies, noting Bulkeng was awarded 45 sites for R428-million and Maziya just 10 sites for R152-million, without explanation for the disparity. The report called for a “comprehensive investigation” into both appointments.
Maziya’s bid and evaluation
AmaBhungane’s review of Maziya’s bid and some IDT internal documents available to us showed not only inflated prices but also that it was initially allocated hospitals it hadn’t bid for.
To give an idea of the inflation in relation to Maziya, amaBhungane compared the IDT’s 2022 implementation plan, the NDOH’s second concurrence letter approving inflated project costs in February 2024, and Maziya’s original quotes according to a bid submission from 27 September 2023.
The original implementation plan included estimates for “small, medium and large” plants, which were later changed to 20, 30 and 40 normal cubic meters per hour (nm/h) plants. In the highly technical business of PSA oxygen plants, it is unclear what the original sizes referred to and why a more thorough job wasn’t done from the outset.
At Greytown Hospital in Kwa-Zulu Natal, the original estimate was R4.2-million. Maziya quoted R17.6-million for a 40nm/h plant and settled on R12.5-million. Bulkeng quoted R16.8-million for the same hospital.
Maziya’s COO, Lucky Qotoyi, told amaBhungane that they “are on record that Maziya Onsite cannot comment on Greytown Hospital as we didn’t tender for that site”.
For Bethesda Hospital, also in KZN, Maziya quoted R25-million for a smaller 25nm/h plant, while the estimate placed it at R2.8-million. The final amount was to be awarded at R12.5-million.
For Elim Hospital in Limpopo, Bulkeng quoted just over R3-million for one 40nm/h plant – less than the original estimate at R4.2-million. According to the 7 September 2023 executive bid adjudication committee (EBAC) submission, this was a mistake. Maziya quoted R17.9-million for the same hospital. It was originally awarded to Bulkeng for R12-million in 2024 and then to Maziya for the same price. It is not clear how the final bidder and price was negotiated.
Based on original quotes, Maziya’s bid per hospital was only slightly cheaper than Bulkeng’s even though Maziya did not bid for four provinces. Subsequent to these documents, however, Maziya was awarded a different set of hospitals.
However, its path to a final award still had unexplained discrepancies.
A chaotic process
In September 2023, Maziya was allocated 46 hospitals, including 15 it never bid for.
Then, in October 2023, Maziya had been allocated five of the most expensive hospitals before that was brought down to just one in February 2024.
According to a formal letter of 16 January 2024 from the IDT to the NDOH requesting approval of the changed budget and preselected contractors, at that stage, Maziya was allocated only one site, Greytown, whereas every other site was allocated to Bulkeng.
This lopsided award prompted the NDOH chief financial officer, Phaswa Mamogale, to write on the bid approval form when he signed off on 14 February 2024 that, “As risk mitigation IDT should appoint multiple service providers in future to prevent/avoid dependencies on [a] single provider.”
It’s by no means clear how Maziya went from one site in February to 10 sites in June 2024.
In addition, Mamogale queried what had happened to a third bidder, Powerchoice, which had apparently also made it through the adjudication process, but mysteriously dropped out.
That exit has never been explained, and Powerchoice told amaBhungane that it was “also in the dark”.
More money
Now, almost a year later, the NDOH has again attempted to justify the ballooning costs, but the IDT previously gave different reasons for the cost increase.
The IDT previously blamed inflation, VAT, and maintenance costs dating back to 2017 and 2019 estimates. The NDOH now claims the Global Fund simply gave more money, expanding the project from 30 to 60 hospitals.
This, however, contradicts early planning documentation, and the 2022 implementation plan – signed by both NDOH and IDT officials – which had already put the project cost at R216-million for 60 hospitals.
Mohale said the Global Fund then shared their catalogues of PSA oxygen plant prices when the department struggled with their own estimates, and an internal assessment of oxygen demand also justified higher costs.
The Global Fund did not respond to amaBhungane’s requests to confirm the NDOH’s version of events.
Official intervention
As more allegations surfaced earlier this year, Motsoaledi declared that the contracts would be terminated and transferred the project to DBSA.
On the release of PwC’s report in July, he said, “It must be noted that when this story of the possibility of corruption broke out in the public media, the Minister of Health in consultation with Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure immediately took a decision to remove the tender from the IDT and took it to the DBSA so that the project can continue and deliver the much-needed oxygen.”
Now we know that in the case of Maziya, at least, that didn’t happen.
What we don’t know is why.
The post Revealed: Maziya’s share in tainted IDT oxygen tender ‘left as it was’ – despite health minister’s promise appeared first on AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.
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