'Find the kingpins' - Babita Deokaran remembered two years after assassination

The commemoration event, held in Mondeor on Wednesday evening, marked the second anniversary of the assassination and was held a a day after six men were sentenced for their role in Deokaran’s death. 

The senior Gauteng health department official was targeted for flagging irregular payments to the value of over R850 million at the Tembisa Hospital. 

READ: Babita Deokoran assassins handed hefty sentences following plea deal

Deokaran’s brother-in-law, Tony Haripersad, said while they welcomed the sentencing they still had questions about who ordered the hit on the single mother. 

“We implore the NPA and the special investigation unit to intensify their investigations in search of the kingpin or kingpins and paymasters who ordered Babita’s death. 

“This person or persons must be brought to book and punished for their part in her death.”

His sentiments were echoed by corruption buster at South African Airways and Whistleblower House executive director Cynthia Stimpel: “At this point we see it as a travesty of justice that’s it’s now too long with no detail of who was the mastermind- and that needs to be investigated.” 

Special Investigation Unit (SIU) head Andy Mothibi said the proclamation recently authorised by the President, will allow them to delve deeper into the rot in the department and do so expeditiously. 

“There’s a phenomenon, we’ve realised, that when officials are faced with disciplinary actions they render their resignations and leave the department.

“The proclamation vests in us the power to find those people. Because when you resign you simply terminate the employer-employee relations. But you’ll not be exonerated from civil litigation and all other action based on what you’ve done.” 

Speaking on behalf of the event’s organiser, the Ahmad Kathrada foundation, Neeshaan Balton applauded Mothibi and Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya for their steadfast efforts to ensure justice for Deokaran. 

Meanwhile, civil organization, ‘Change.org,’ presented Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko with a petition bearing more than 14 000 signatures demanding action against officials and companies implicated in the Tembisa scandals.

This included calls for the immediate blacklisting of the companies linked to the corruption uncovered by Deokaran.

“This petition calls on the Gauteng health department to suspend the officials implicated in the R1 billion corruption which Babita exposed, and for which she was murdered. 

“Secondly, and probably the most important demand in this petition, is that department blacklists the over 200 companies who facilitated that corruption,” said the organization’s senior campaigner Lee-Anne Germanos. 

Responding to the demands, Nkomo-Ralehoko said her department was being guided by the work of senior investigators from the SIU on how to handle processes without jeopardizing their investigations.

The event was attended by several individuals at the forefront of the war against corruption such as chief executive of OUTA Wayne Duvenhage, Defend Our Democracy’s Reverend Frank Chikane, anti-apartheid activists Murphy Morobe and Cheryl Caroulus.