Friday marks the third anniversary since the murder of Gauteng Department of Health’s chief director for financial accounting Babita Deokaran, and her family insists justice has not been entirely served.
A wreath-laying ceremony was held on Friday morning, at the scene where Deokaran took her last breath in Mondeor, where family members were supported by different civic society organisations.
The Joburg-based mother was shot at least 12 times on August 23, 2021, near her home, after she raised the alarm on wholesale fraud and corruption happening at Tembisa Hospital.
IOL has previously reported that six men — Phakamani Hadebe, Zitha Radebe, Nhlangano Ndlovu, Sanele Mbhele, Siphiwe Mazibuko, and Siphakanyiswa Dladla — were arrested. Following a plea agreement with the State, the six men pleaded guilty last year and were sentenced to different jail terms relating to their roles in the murder.
On Friday, Bishop Tony Haripersadh, Deokaran’s brother-in-law told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that the mastermind behind the assassination remains free.
“Those six people that are serving their sentences were just the ones that carried out the hit. But the person, the mastermind behind this has not yet been apprehended and it is a sad thing for us,” he said.
Haripersadh said in the aftermath of Deokaran’s murder, much promises have been made for the protection and promotion of whistle-blowers – but much of it has been talk with no action.
“It hurts us because we assume the mastermind is living a normal life with his or her family, everything is going on well, enjoying the money from the corruption and here we have Babita’s family in pain and her daughter without a mother. So, justice has not been fully done unfortunately,” he said.
“There is not much that has been done. We cannot see anything tangible. There is a lot of things that are spoken by government officials especially on these memorial services that we hold for Babita and on other platforms, we hear a lot of things but when it comes to the practice I don’t think there is a lot of protection and promotion of whistle-blowers and they have families as well.”
Haripersadh said under the circumstances, whistle-blowers in South Africa were not encouraged to speak out. However, Deokaran’s family was encouraging other whistle-blowers to stand against corrupt activities.
“We feel that justice is not being done for whistle-blowers and whistle-blowers are not encouraged to speak out. They are more fearful than anything else because the protection that has been promised, I don’t think that is taking place. That is not in place as yet,” he said.
“We would like to see those that were responsible for the ordering of the assassination be brought to book. We would like to encourage other whistle-blowers not to be fearful but to speak out for the sake of this country because corruption must be eradicated at all costs.”
In February, IOL reported that Deokaran’s daughter, Thiara, matriculated from Abbots College in Johannesburg with five distinctions and an 82% aggregate in the 2023 exams.
Despite the trauma of losing her mother so tragically, Thiara, has focused on her academic excellence.
Her uncle Rakesh Deokaran, said despite the loss of her mom, Thiara had been extremely resilient, emotionally strong and logical about her life going forward — like her mum would have wanted.
IOL