Jack Bloom: Political connection, political protection, political interference… and the looting continues

Loading player...
The dark triad of criminal tenderpreneurs, crooked cops and captured politicians has not only cost the country billions, but has led to the loss of lives of an untold number of people. Following the latest revelations about the R2-billion looting of Tembisa Hospital, Jack Bloom, the Democratic Alliance Shadow MEC for Health in Gauteng, tells BizNews he believes that the syndicates are still busy in other hospitals. “The vultures are still there.” Bloom warns that unless people at the top of the Gauteng Health Department were replaced, “this looting is just going to continue”. He also laments the “immense implications… about political connections…and political protection”. And, commenting on the death from a mysterious fall in Paris of former Police Minister Minister Nathi Mthethwa - just a week after being named at the Madlanga Commission, Bloom says: “… you can't help but sort of make an inference that perhaps it was what was coming up at the Commission and that you know he was possibly implicated….the tentacles are all over the place. They really are. We have a Mafia State. You get rid of one criminal syndicate, another takes over, but they seem to work together.” As for the still unanswered question as to who ordered the hit on whistleblower Babita Deokaran, Bloom says: “I think we can have our suspicions now because now we see people who are embedded in networks and the police are implicated as well because none of this could have happened without high-level collusion."
1 Oct 2025 6AM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

Ian Cameron: 30 detectives, 3 chairs, 1 laptop

In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Ian Cameron, the Chair of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police, shares the shocking findings of his latest oversight visit. He describes finding, at one station, over 30 detectives sharing an office container with only three chairs and one laptop and no official detective…
21 Oct 12PM 19 min

BN Edge | Dawie Roodt on MTBPS: a corner turned, but for the wrong reason

Enoch Godongwana told Parliament that South Africa had emerged from the fiscal wilderness. Dawie Roodt agreed the corner had been turned, just not for the reasons the minister would want. Debt had stabilised and the primary surplus was growing, but the improvement came from a commodity windfall, an aggressive SARS…
21 Oct 11AM 33 min

WSM: Is a vote for a small party wasted? | Jaundiced Eye

Johannesburg twice handed its mayoralty to a party that won less than 1% of the vote. With 547 parties and almost 137,000 candidates chasing 10,526 council seats on 4 November, Jaundiced Eye columnist William Saunderson-Meyer argued that most of those names were vanity projects or job-seekers, and that the big…
21 Oct 9AM 25 min

How the ACDP has resisted coalition bribery | Wayne Thring

With Local Government Elections looming, all eyes are on KZN. In this interview with Chris, Steyn, eThekwini Mayoral Candidate and Deputy President of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Wayne Thring, describes how his party resisted bribery involving millions and even an offer of an ambassadorship. “Our councillors were offered…
21 Oct 6AM 32 min