Health official murder a 'hit to scare whistle-blowers'

The cold-blooded murder of a Gauteng health official who was a witness in the PPE scandal has sparked outrage and prompted calls from different sectors of society for the protection of whistle-blowers.

Babita Deokaran, 53, chief director of financial accounting, was gunned down outside her home in Winchester Hills, south of Johannesburg, on Monday morning, minutes after she had dropped off her daughter at school.

She died in hospital.

Ahmed Kathrada Foundation director Shan Bolton, to whom Deokaran confided about irregularities and corruption happening in the department, described her killing as a professional hit.

“Then the question we have to ask is who benefits from this. It is clear that there are possible syndicates who are most likely threatened by people like Deokaran who are opposed to all kinds of irregular awarding of tenders within the department. Deokaran would have been an obstacle to the ongoing corruption,” Bolton said.

The Daily Marverick reported that Deokaran sent messages to the foundation which showed that she and others were sidelined and faced trumped-up misconduct charges when they tried to blow the whistle on corruption.

The report said Deokaran said that she and three senior managers at head office were targeted.

She said she and two supply chain managers were suspended while the life of the payments director was made “a living hell, she resigned”.

Once all the PPE orders were done and payments made, the department dropped all charges against her and one other supply chain management director.

The department allegedly offered the payment director to come back on a one-year contract and move Deokaran to the Johannesburg health district.

Deokaran's brother-in-law Tony Haripersadh, 60, said she opened up about people who were not happy with her work of exposing irregularities.

“She didn’t mention names unfortunately. She just told us she was exposing corruption and people were upset about that,” said Haripersadh.

He said he advised her to inform her managers.

“I advised her to be very careful and told her to make sure she always does the Right thing,” said Haripersadh.

Civil society organisation Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis said though there is no data indicating that there is a growing number of whistle-blowers being killed, he indicated that Deokaran’s murder was highly likely connected to her cooperation with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

“Police need to understand that what she was doing with SIU seems to have affected the interests of some people who were possibly being investigated.”

He said Deokaran’s murder should be treated as that of a police officer because of the role she was playing in helping the state in unearthing corrupt activities.

He said there is an insufficient amount of recognition given to the role that whistle-blowers play in exposing corruption. “If police made it a priority in investigating crimes, this crime should not [be] treated as just a murder but an act of terror against the state,” he said.

“This is definitely a message to future whistle-blowers. Her murder is an act to discourage whistle-blowing. If their (whistle-blowers) contribution was appropriately recognised, this would not happen.”

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said Deokaran was one of the 300 witnesses in the probe into the PPE Gauteng scandal.

He said they put witnesses under protection in instances where their lives have been placed in danger.

“She never mentioned anything but also, we shouldn't work on the assumption that the reason she was killed is because of this (SIU investigation into PPE scandal)," Kganyago said.

Provincial police spokesperson Capt Kay Makhubele said a case of murder has been opened and no arrests have been made.

Deokaran is just one of many high whistle-blowers who have been killed.

In June, Gauteng human settlements official Teboho Makhoa was killed in Vosloorus by unknown men. At least 28 bullet holes were found on Makhoa’s vehicle.

The department's MEC,Lebogang Maile, conceded that his killing was work-related but did not elaborate.

Asked about progress in the case on Tuesday, family spokesperson Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri told Sowetan: “It is as if it never happened. The last time we heard anything was when police told us they had found a car that was involved in the shooting. Since then, there has not been any updates.”

Makhubele had not given an update on investigations at the time of going to print.

Other high-profile murders of anti-corruption activists include:

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• In October 2020, Sedibeng municipal manager Stanley Khanyile was shot in broad daylight while sitting in his car at a shopping centre in Meyersdal in Alberton, south of Johannesburg. Mayor Busi Modisakeng, who has since passed on, told Sowetan at that time that three weeks before his death, a group of men stormed his office under the pretext of being local business forum members and demanded an explanation of the municipal budget and how they could get upcoming tenders. The visit by the group coincided with the closing date of a security tender the municipality had advertised.

• On July 13 2017, ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, 35, was ambushed and shot allegedly for questioning why so little work had been done on refurbishing the Umzimkhulu Memorial Hall after millions of rand had been paid to contractors. He died weeks later. In 2019, mayor of Harry Gwala district municipality Mluleki Ndobe was among those arrested in connection with Magaqa’s murder. Ndobe was later released. He died in November last year. Three men –  Sibonelo Myeza, Mbulelo Mpofana and Mxolisi Ncalane – are expected to go on trial on October 14.

• On January 4 2009, former Mbombela municipal speaker Jimmy Mohlala was gunned down. The murder happened a week before he was due to testify in the disciplinary hearing of former municipal manager Jacob Dladla, who had been accused of financial mismanagement in relation to the R1.2bn Mbombela Stadium.   Five suspects, including two police officers and a cleaner at Rob Ferreira Hospital, were arrested in connection with Mohlala’s murder.  However, it later emerged that the person who implicated them only wanted the R100,000 reward offered by police.

• On January 8 2010, former spokesperson for the Mpumalanga department of sports, arts and culture Sammy Mpatlanyane was killed.  Mpatlanyane was vocal about the alleged corruption in the building of the Mbombela Stadium.  Three men –  Nito Mashava, 28, Omary Issa, 29, and Two-Pac Ntumba  – were arrested.  Mashava changed his statement, which led the court to send him for psychiatric evaluation. He died in a psychiatric hospital, which led to Issa and Ntumba being released.

 • In 2007, Thandi Mtsweni, the deputy mayor of the Govan Mbeki municipality, was killed for speaking out against alleged corrupt tender processes at work.

• On March 14 2009, Moss Phakoe, a Rustenburg municipality ANC councillor, was shot dead at his home in Rustenburg North after he had handed over a dossier detailing corruption in the municipality to high-ranking ANC officials, including former secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and former president Jacob Zuma.

Phakoe also handed the dossier to former cooperative governance minister Sicelo Shiceka, in the presence of former Rustenburg mayor Matthew Wolmarans. Wolmarans and his bodyguard Enoch Matshaba were arrested for Phakoe’s murder.

Wolmarans was sentenced to 20 years in jail while Matshaba was sentenced to life. The pair were released after a state witness, Emmanuel Masoka, later deposed an affidavit in which he said his testimony was false. Masoka was charged with perjury for making conflicting statements under oath.