Thamsanqa Brian Hlongwa is a South African politician who was Gauteng's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health from March 2006 to May 2009.
He was also the party's Chief Whip in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature until October 2018, when he resigned amid a corruption scandal relating to his tenure as Health MEC.
Yet by July 2018, Hlongwa was embroiled in controversy due to renewed public attention to allegations that he had been implicated in corruption while Health MEC from 2006 to 2009 (see below).
Furthermore, the African National Congress is committed to natural justice and my continued stay as the chief whip in the GPL [Gauteng Provincial Legislature] would have distracted the movement from its task of mobilising our people behind a programme to unite, renew and create jobs.
[15] Allegations of corruption against Hlongwa received public attention as early as 2009, when he was still Health MEC,[16][17] but became particularly prominent in 2014, when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said that it intended to press charges against him.
[18] In March 2017, the SIU completed its investigation and handed a report to the incumbent President Jacob Zuma, who did not publish the findings until obliged to by a Promotion of Access to Information Act request by Section27, a non-profit, in 2018.
In particular, the SIU claimed that 3P Consulting, a private company headed by Hlongwa's friend Richard Payne, was granted state contracts that had been awarded irregularly and at inflated prices.