{"id":20397,"date":"2013-06-13T16:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T14:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/nkonyeni-denies-contract-claim\/"},"modified":"2013-06-13T16:06:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T14:06:00","slug":"nkonyeni-denies-contract-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/nkonyeni-denies-contract-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Nkonyeni denies contract claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/df67c_2120705422.jpg\" alt=\"Copy of nm pegggy n (34563502)\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">The Mercury<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">KZN Speaker Peggy Nkonyeni.<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/crime-courts\/court-told-of-contract-in-exchange-for-cash-1.1531175\">Court told of contract in exchange for cash<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; KZN Speaker Peggy Nkonyeni has defended herself against allegations made in the Durban Labour Court this week by a suspended health department employee that she exerted pressure on health department officials to accelerate the awarding of a contract in exchange for a donation to the ANC. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Nkonyeni was health MEC when Cape Town-based Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi\u2019s company, Intaka Holdings, was awarded the multi-million rand contract to supply equipment to the health department. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Suspended health department legal services manager Kantha Padayachee testified on Tuesday that she was worked out of the health department after informing the police and auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) about Intaka\u2019s irregular contracts with the department. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">On Wednesday, Nkonyeni\u2019s spokesman, Wonder Hlongwa, said that, while the Office of the Speaker respected the Labour Court process, the allegations were now \u201cout in the public domain\u201d and Nkonyeni had to give her side of the story. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cNkonyeni categorically denies allegations attributed to (Padayachee)\u2026 It is also important to mention that Padayachee was charged and suspended by the department after Nkonyeni had left and the charges she faced had to do with allegations of racism that were levelled against her and had nothing to do with the Intaka Holdings saga,\u201d Hlongwa said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He said it was \u201cnow baffling to understand\u201d why Padayachee was \u201cdragging Nkonyeni\u2019s name into her problems with the department\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Savoi and several senior KZN government employees were charged with racketeering, fraud and money laundering in the \u201cAmigos\u201d trial. Nkonyeni was originally charged, but the charges were withdrawn last October. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Hlongwa said Nkonyeni\u2019s office had noted, \u201cwith suspicion\u201d, that Padayachee\u2019s allegations had surfaced shortly after the DA instituted court proceedings to force the National Prosecuting Authority to make public its reasons for withdrawing these charges against Nkonyeni. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He said Nkonyeni\u2019s office believed that certain individuals, colluding with political parties, could be using the courts for party politics. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cThe Office of the Speaker will, however, watch developments until the end of the proceedings before it makes a full statement on the allegations.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mercury KZN Speaker Peggy Nkonyeni. Related Stories Court told of contract in exchange for cash Durban &#8211; KZN Speaker Peggy Nkonyeni has defended herself against allegations made in the Durban Labour Court this week by a suspended health department employee that she exerted pressure on health department officials to accelerate the awarding of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-20397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}