The State today withdrew corruption charges against Peggy Nkonyeni, former Health MEC and now the ANC’s whip in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial council. Nkonyeni’s jubilant supporters chanted and sang at the announcement of the withdrawal. The case was also withdrawn against her two co-accused, who are a businessman and health department official.
State advocate Hein van der Merwe would not give any reasons for withdrawing the charges during court proceedings at the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court. Later he said a particular witness was “not ready to testify”. Nkonyeni’s co-accused were Henry Mkhwanazi, a Richard’s Bay businessman, and Mduduzi Ntshangane, an official in the KwaZulu-Natal health department. Previously, the former accused’s lawyers had complained about the cost and inconvenience to the accused of repeatedly appearing in court and asked that the case be withdrawn. If the State decided to prosecute them it was free to do so later.
The allegations of corruption centre around the purchase of ultrasound and general imaging equipment for the KwaZulu-Natal health department at inflated prices while Nkonyeni was MEC for health. She was alleged to have received kickbacks for influencing health department officials to buy particular equipment. Mkhwanazi allegedly agreed to give her “gratification” for pressing Ntshangane to buy equipment, which was handled by Mkhwanazi.
Source: The Sowetan
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