Babita Deokaran: Whistleblower’s attempts to expose corruption not in vain, says SIU

Babita Deokaran reported corruption in the Gauteng Department of Health

Three years after the assassination of Gauteng financial accounting officer Babita Deokaran, Andy Mothibi, boss of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), said her efforts to uncover corrupt activities had not been in vain and that investigations were at an advanced stage.

At 08:24 on 23 August 2021, hitmen pumped 12 bullets into the 53-year-old Gauteng health-observing CFO outside her compound in southern Johannesburg shortly after dropping her child off at school.

Deokaran flagged corruption in the department’s procurement of Covid personal protective equipment (PPE) to the value of R332 million.

Mothibi told 702 that Deokaran’s evidence helped the SIU’s investigation. He said the SIU had expanded the scope of its Tembisa Hospital transplant investigation, which was implemented by Deokaran, to a whopping 5 500 transactions worth as much as R3 billion.

This represents a 250% escalation of the R850 million in “possibly fraudulent transactions” she earmarked and reported three weeks before her murder, News24 reported.

“Her efforts were not in vain. We have now discovered that her testimony helped us come forward with the identification of cases where the officials bypassed procurement and abused quotation systems.

“The investigation team gave me an update on 5 314 purchase orders identified in relation to more than 170 service providers. So what are we going to do? We will immediately go to the Special Tribunal and go after these service providers to make sure we get the money back,” Mothibi said.

Mothbi added that the SIU tracked down the money.

Investigations into Deokaran
shootings”We know what these syndicated individuals did with these monies; bought luxury assets such as houses and cars, which we will immediately go to.

“We are really pleased to see that the Gauteng government has already taken action against some of the officials. There were disciplinary action against five Tembisa hospital employees, and quite senior employees and the CEO were also in the process of facing disciplinary action. He was also expelled. Unfortunately, he has since passed away, but the others that remain will face consequences, both from an employee relations perspective and they will be criminally prosecuted,” Mothibi said.

Mothibi said they would work with the National Prosecuting Authority, adding that the Hawks were also investigating the matter.

“We will make sure that we support them, so that all these people are prosecuted and that everyone is held to account.

“With respect to the criminal investigation of the people who shot Babita, I have the information that the investigation is at an advanced stage,” Mothibi said.

In
August last year, six men convicted of Deokaran’s murder admitted they were recruited to murder her because she “created problems at work” and “had to be dealt with”.

Phakamani Hadebe, Zitha Radebe, Nhlangano Ndlovu, Sanele Mbhele, Siphiwe Mazibuko and Siphakanyiswa Dladla appeared before Justice Motsamai Makume in the Johannesburg High Court.

They pleaded guilty to Deokaran’s murder and were sentenced to between 6 and 22 years in prison in a plea sentence agreement.

All defendants were convicted of the murder of Deokoran under the principle of dolus eventualis and conceded that they foresaw the possibility that their actions could lead to the death of Deokoran or any other person, but reconciled them to such a possibility when they proceeded to act in execution of a common purpose of carrying out the pre-planned act of killing Deokoran, perform.

It’s unclear who ordered the onslaught, but there are calls for those behind her murder to be denounced.