Taxpayer losses to Tembisa Hospital corruption networks, first identified by whistle-blower Babita Deokaran, have risen to as much as R3bn, says the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), a 250% escalation from the R850m transactions she had flagged three weeks before her assassination.
Although the SIU probe is advancing, three years after her death the police investigation into who ordered her murder has gone cold, and with no leads, has now been downgraded to an inquiry.
News24 reports that the SIU has placed Tembisa Hospital at the centre of a complex extraction scheme which relied on crooked hospital officials who engineered the awarding of thousands of contracts.
SIU boss Andy Mothibi said the money was laundered through hundreds of “letterbox” companies that existed only on paper, at a near industrial scale previously unknown.
"We have never come across a scheme as complex and deeply rooted as this, and this is just one hospital," he said.
Dirty money
The money was moved out of Gauteng Department of Health coffers through as many as 5 500 individual transactions, followed by thousands more to launder the cash through the bank accounts of nameless companies.
This dwarfs a list of 1 203 payments Deokaran had identified before calling for an urgent investigation and immediate stop to payments. This call died with her, and the money was released after her murder.
Mothibi said the SIU’s expansive probe had exposed the depth of the rot at Tembisa Hospital and raised concerns that networks had also been operating at other hospitals.
SIU investigation ongoing
In August last year, six men arrested after Deokaran’s murder accepted plea and sentencing agreements that saw them imprisoned.
In exchange for lenient sentences for murder and illegal gun charges, the gang named a Khanyisani Mpungose as the man who recruited them, and two other unknown figures as having pulled the trigger.
Some will be eligible for parole next year.
Cold case
Mpungose was a dead lead, as he was murdered months after Deokaran. He had been arrested in connection with her murder two weeks after the killing and was inexplicably released without charge.
The two others and their paymaster, who remain unknown and untraceable, remain free.
Acting on the SIU’s recommendations in the preliminary phase of their probe, the Gauteng Department of Health instituted disciplinary action against five Tembisa Hospital employees.
Spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said that of the five, one had been dismissed, two resigned, and two others had been found guilty of misconduct.
The latter pair is appealing these sanctions.
Modiba added that since Deokaran’s murder, the department had tightened procurement prescripts.
“All procurement between the value of R500 000 and R1m is reviewed by Gauteng Treasury before the creation of any purchase orders, amid other safeguards,” he said.
Gauteng Health CFO Lerato Madyo, to whom Deokaran reported her concerns and who failed to take any action, was suspended, facing 13 charges of misconduct in August of 2022.
Her disciplinary action remains under way, and she has been on paid suspension since, drawing more than R3m in her monthly salary.
Deokaran’s sister, Renu Williams, said the family’s hope for accountability has waned in the face of police inaction.
“Babita lost her life for doing her job as an ethical and honest employee of the state. We assumed that no stone would be left unturned to ensure she got justice. This has not been the case at all.”
Williams warned that the Hawks should not labour under the misconception that because the hitmen had been imprisoned, their job was done.
“It is unacceptable that the mastermind of this crime has been walking free for the past three years. Those six did not hire themselves.
"We have had absolutely no feedback from anyone in law enforcement in more than a year, and whether they are still working on the case or not, we are not aware as we are completely in the dark,” she added.
If the Hawks did not do their jobs, Williams said, Deokaran’s death would be meaningless.
Lost hope
A News24 investigation, using 60 000 Gauteng Department of Health emails and the contents of Deokaran’s cellphone, revealed she had been suspicious of a surge of contract payments from the hospital before she was killed.
A formal report she filed, asking for an urgent investigation and putting the brakes on R100m in payments from a single monthly pay run, was covered up after her murder, and the money quietly released.
Critically, email and cellphone evidence obtained by News24 was seized by police on the day of the attack, held in a dusty evidence store for months, and never analysed or processed.
None of this crucial information, which could have pointed to those who had a motive to eliminate her, was ever investigated by Detective Percy Chauke, who was promoted after his handling of the matter.
Had he examined text exchanges on her cellphone, he would have found text exchanges in which Deokaran warned that blocking payments to “the Tembisa guys” might place a target on her back.
The Hawks have previously denied the investigation was mishandled.
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‘All systems go’ for SIU Tembisa Hospital probe
Gauteng health boss ignored Deokaran’s plea for probe, claims acting HoD
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Juicy R500 000 Tembisa hospital chicken tender allegedly irregular
Helen Suzman Foundation pays tribute to Babita Deokaran