A cellphone belonging to suspended Gauteng Health Department HoD Lerato Madyo, which was vital evidence in the R850m fraud and corruption probe into Tembisa Hospital after whistle-blower Babita Deokaran’s suspicions and subsequent murder, was stolen before investigators could analyse it.
However, in the last message sent by Madyo, half an hour after Deokaran was riddled with bullets, she had asked: “Are u ok?????!!!!”
The phone, which had a record of a WhatsApp chat between Madyo and Deokaran, was reported stolen in March 2022.
A history of conversations on the device, obtained by News24, shows that in the weeks before she was murdered, Deokaran had shared with Madyo her concerns over Tembisa Hospital spending, fears that her life was in danger, and misgivings surrounding lucrative contracts awarded to an ANC politician.
The extent to which Madyo knew of Deokaran’s report into “possibly fraudulent” suppliers of the hospital, and what she did or failed to do after she was informed, is set out by a record of their discussions.
The theft of her phone, and the chat history with it, could have an impact on disciplinary action and a criminal investigation she faces.
The theft
Police said Madyo reported the theft of her phone to the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria on 27 March 2022.
Hawks detectives seized Madyo’s laptop as part of a fraud and corruption inquiry into 217 companies red-flagged by Deokaran, and an SIU probe then uncovered that the phone used by Madyo at the time of the murder had been reported stolen months previously.
The belated investigation, launched a full 12 months after Deokaran was assassinated, was set in motion by News24’s investigative series titled Silenced.
The timeline
Around 60 000 internal Gauteng Health Department emails, as well the contents of Deokaran’s cellphone showed she had repeatedly informed Madyo that a spending surge at Tembisa Hospital required scrutiny.
Deokaran first notified Madyo via an official email report, a summation of her surface level investigation, 19 days before she was murdered.
A week later, Deokaran and Madyo discussed Tembisa Hospital again on WhatsApp. Deokaran wrote: “Morning CFO I am just worried that the guys in Tembisa are going to realise we are not releasing their payments and know that we on to something. Our lives could be in danger.”
Madyo responded: “Morning Babita I’ve requested HoD to grant approval for investigation,” to which Deokaran replies: “Thank you. I am praying she grants approval soon so that work can start. Thank you for the support.”
Then-Gauteng Health Department HoD Sibongile Zungu, in response to whether Madyo had requested approval for an investigation, denied the conversation had ever taken place.
“There was never a report and request for an investigation… Madyo did not communicate any request for an investigation prior to Ms Deokaran’s passing,” she said.
Zungu added that the first time she was made aware of Deokaran’s call for an investigation into Tembisa Hospital was on the day of her murder, after she had learned of Deokaran’s killing.
“She (Madyo) was responding to my question on how she was feeling…said that she was still hurting and going through their text conversations,” she said.
“Madyo did not communicate any request for an investigation… however, she shares a screenshot of their WhatsApp conversation. (This was) not necessarily reporting or requesting an investigation but rather highlighting that it seemed Babita had a premonition about the activities at Tembisa Hospital.”
Instead of pursuing a forensic probe into Tembisa, as Deokaran had recommended, however, Madyo instead authorised a random internal audit of all hospitals in the province.
Tembisa Hospital auditors examined a sample of just 18 individual payments – of 1 203 identified by Deokaran before her murder – and found that all were irregular.
Like Deokaran, the auditors asked for a broadscale investigation. This never happened.
Police slow to start
With Hawks detectives starting their investigation late, Madyo’s cellphone – of crucial evidentiary value – was lost. Had her phone been seized and forensically imaged, her WhatsApp conversations could have been compared with those held on Deokaran’s phone.
With this, police would have found Madyo’s final message to Deokaran, sent minutes after the whistle-blower was shot in her driveway on 23 August 2021.
According to WhatsApp conversations and emails, Deokaran and Madyo worked through the weekend to finalise the department’s financial statements and had arranged to convene for a meeting at 10am.
Ambulance dispatch records show that paramedics arrived at the shooting scene at 8.36am and, with a critically wounded Deokaran on board, arrived at Netcare Union Hospital at 9.05am.
Call records indicate that Madyo tried to phone Deokaran at 9.07 and she did not answer. When the call was missed, Madyo sent a short message asking Deokaran: “Are u ok?????!!!!”
The excessive use of punctuation suggests concern and anxiety, a seeming overreaction to a missed call. The meeting they were to attend was 43 minutes from starting.
At 11.31am, Madyo sent a message to a Gauteng Health Department WhatsApp group saying she had “just heard some not so pleasant news” about Deokaran, and requested officials not to “share the news” until a formal announcement was made.
Madyo was asked about how she structured her final message to Deokaran, and why its tone and structure indicated concern. She was asked how and when she had heard of the murder, and who had told her. Madyo declined to answer
She has not been interviewed by police, nor has she been arrested or criminally charged.
Ticking clock
Madyo has been on paid suspension for six months, and at the first sitting of an internal disciplinary hearing last month, her leave of absence was extended until April.
The Gauteng Premier’s office, which initiated the case against Madyo, could not provide a charge sheet showing what misconduct she is accused of.
The hearing was postponed until April, with a deadline for the provincial government to formulate a charge sheet, and supply Madyo’s lawyers with the supporting documents on which they rely.
Questions were put to Madyo, through her attorney, last week, but neither responded.
News24 article – Crucial Tembisa Hospital corruption evidence stolen (Restricted access)
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