REPORTING NOTES | Gauteng health dept shields tender mafias and keeps you in the dark

For nearly a year, News24’s investigations team has exposed the rot at Tembisa Hospital in vivid detail, following a trail of R1 billion in cash extracted from the public purse. At every turn, those who lead the Gauteng health department have protected tender tycoons and their own officials who enabled the heyday with a wall of silence and lies. This is an affront to transparency and spits on the memory of Babita Deokaran, writes investigative journalist Jeff Wicks.

Babita Deokaran was a whistleblower who reported corruption at Tembisa Hospital, and three weeks after she escalated her findings to those whom she thought she could trust, she was shot 12 times in the driveway of her home. 

In her position of Chief Director: Financial Accounting, she had a front row seat to rampant looting and corruption within her department, that saw cash – always in short supply – diverted away from the sick and dying at public hospitals in the province. For her, turning a blind eye was untenable, and she died because she did the right thing.