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Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba has been fired from her position to allow her time to focus on her Nelson Mandela funeral fraud case.
The announcement was made by Premier Oscar Mabuyane during a media briefing on Thursday.
Mabuyane added that Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Xolile Nqatha would serve as acting health MEC until a permanent appointment was made.
Gomba will, however, remain as a member of the Eastern cape legislature.
Mabuyane also revealed that Gomba was implicated in a Special Investigating Unit report on wrongdoing, alongside former health head Dr Thobile Mbengashe.
This is in relation to the procurement of the infamous scooter ambulances at a cost of R10 million by the provincial health department.
At the same time, Gomba, several other ANC heavyweights in the Buffalo City Metro region and municipal officials are facing a string of serious charges including fraud, corruption, money laundering and contravening the municipal finance management act.
The 15 suspects are accused of misleading the municipality into believing that it had an obligation to make money available funeral and memorial service for former president Nelson Mandela in December 2013.
According to the charge sheet, once a R10m was availed, the suspects acted with a common purpose to defraud and manipulate municipal procurement processes through illegal deviation.
Then, to manipulate the situation so that funding could be used for other purposes than for what they officially were approved for.
The accused were each released on R1 000 bail and the case was postponed to 5 March for the defense to be furnished with copies of the docket and for four outstanding suspects to be brought to court and added.
Gomba came under fire last year over the purchase of scooters for transporting Covid-19 patients and the Mandela funeral fraud case currently before court.
