This past Sunday marked five years since the assassination of Gauteng Health whistle-blower Babita Deokaran, who had first exposed the trail of suspicious payments at Tembisa Hospital and which led to the subsequent discovery of a vast and tangled web of corruption, reports EWN.
Six men pleaded guilty to the murder and in August 2023, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 22 years, totalling a combined 95 years behind bars.
Days before being ambushed outside her home, Deokaran (53) had alerted her seniors that her life was in danger, but she received no protection. She had just uncovered more than R800m in separate payments to at least 200 alleged shell companies.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has since placed the figure at R2bn.
At a memorial event on Sunday, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s Neeshan Balton said police are yet to identify other role-players in the murder.
“What we haven’t seen is identification of the people who paid her killers. Nor have we seen a change of the systems that enable this corruption.”
The SIU has linked the corruption to at least three co-ordinated syndicates, and apparent businessmen Hangwani Maumela and Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala.
Matlala this week admitted to having a business relationship with Maumela, telling the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into police capture that he and Maumela initially invested about R1m each in a business venture to secure medical supply contracts from the Gauteng Department of Health.
This comes after Matlala refused to respond to questions about his relationship with Maumela in fear of self-incrimination.
Matlala and Maumela established a company through which they responded to requests for quotations (RFQs) for government contracts and shared the profits.
Matlala said they pooled their money, about R1m each, in a bank account and used the funds to finance contracts when they secured RFQs.
Matlala said the pair received their first RFQ from the Gauteng Department of Health in 2018 and that the business generated about R5m over the next five years.
He said they would approach suppliers of medical consumables and provide them with money upfront to secure stock.
“If you are a supplier and we need to buy stock from your company, we would put money into your company, take stock and you would tell us how much is left and we would keep on adding money into that contract.”
Matlala said he and Maumela would each receive 10% from the profits generated from the supplier deals.
“He contributed money because there is money that we put in the main supplier account. And we agreed that whoever gets RFQs first, we can take money from there but he'd have to give me 10% of the profit,” said Matlala.
He said their business dealings involved numerous projects, making it difficult for him to recall them all.
Matlala said his relationship with Maumela began through their shared interest in luxury sports cars in about 2015 or 2016.
“We both have a passion for sports cars,” he said.
Matlala initially claimed legal privilege and invoked his right against self-incrimination when questioned about his relationship with Maumela and their business dealings.
The commission, however, asserted that Matlala was not a suspect in the Special Investigating Unit’s case against Maumela and therefore could not claim privilege.
The SIU has identified Maumela as a central figure in the Tembisa Hospital procurement scandal. The investigation found that companies linked to his network benefited from irregular procurement at the hospital.
Maumela allegedly siphoned up to R820m from Tembisa Hospital through a massive web of procurement fraud. The SIU uncovered that his network allegedly used dozens of front companies to secure more than 1 700 irregular purchase orders.
The National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) secured a court order to permanently seize R326m worth of assets linked to the syndicate. The seized property includes high-end mansions; a fleet of supercars, among them multiple Lamborghinis and a Bentley; a luxury boat; and a multipurpose trailer.
Matlala also faced questions about his relationship with suspended deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya.
He denied having a close relationship with Sibiya, describing him as “someone that I knew” rather than a friend. He was reluctant to respond to questions involving Sibiya, saying it would amount to incriminating himself.
Matlala repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination when questioned about his alleged links to senior police officials and the controversial SAPS Medicare24 health contract, again arguing that there were pending criminal cases against him.
Mail & Guardian – Cat Matlala admits connection to Hangwani Maumela
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Gauteng Health ‘fails to honour Deokaran’, claims DA
Speculation of Gauteng ‘Mafia’ link to murder of Babita Deokaran
Gauteng Health whistleblower’s assassination was meticulously plotted