The late Babita Deokaran was a distinguished and exemplary public servant whose dedication to exceptional professionalism, unswerving dedication, and high ethical standards cost her life. Deokaran, who until her death was the Chief Director: Financial Accounting in the Gauteng Department of Health, was gunned down outside her home on Monday, 23 August 2021.
You know there is moral morass in a society when men and women of good standing are treated as aliens, and every clandestine means is conjured to systematically eliminate them. It is not easy to ignore the prevailing theory that Babita Deokaran, 53, has paid the price with her life for the commitment to discharging her duty ethically. Deokaran was assassinated at her home at Mondeor in Johannesburg.
Intriguingly, Gauteng police spokesperson, Kay Makhubele has said, that, currently the investigation is on murder and cannot be linked to the ongoing investigation in the case of R322 million PPE tender corruption in the Gauteng Department of Health. The late Deokaran had already submitted the required information to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). And so, there is a school of thought that, if were an assassination had to do with the case, it would have occurred before her appointment with the SIU.
But the theory that people involved, or in some way associated with the corruption case, have had a hand in her fate cannot be entirely dismissed. There is a similar modus operandi in the murders of Deokaran and other victims who have paid the price with their lives for fighting corruption and fraud in a public institution which was costing tax payers millions of rand countrywide. The following are common denominators in most of the cases: tenders are awarded without following due process; tenders are awarded to someone related to or a close acquaintance of a high ranking official in a department; and a mediocre quality of goods and services is supplied at grossly inflated prices.
Without mincing words, eliminating people of good standing from society is a desperate attempt to frustrate the dispensation of justice, and let crass corruption to go unbridled with giddy abandon. At current rate of murders of witnesses or people pursuing perpetrators, South Africa runs the risk of becoming a country in which ethical men and women will become an endangered species.
The transformation project needs a religious adherence to good corporate governance to ensure the excellent delivery of goods and services and that resources go to the deserving previous disadvantaged communities. And this can only be when the duty of overseeing is entrusted in the hands of women and men who strive to espouse and are dedicating to transparency and accountability. We can only rue the tens of billions of taxpayers money that would have gone in skills development and development of black owned small and medium enterprises through enterprise development.
The loss of people of Deokaran’s calibre rids the nation of men and women that the transformation initiative needs the most when it appears to lack a moral compass. This is based on gut-wrenching evidence of corruption being unearthed at the ongoing State Capture Hearings.
Distinguished and exemplary
Babita Deokaran was the Chief Director: Financial Accounting in the Gauteng Department of Health. She was appointed Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in August 2020 in the aftermath of the irregular and unlawful PPE procurement that rocked Gauteng.
She was a distinguished and exemplary public servant who served the people of Gauteng and the Department of Health with exceptional professionalism, unswerving dedication, and high ethical standards.
During her tenure as the Acting CFO, Ms Deokaran uncovered corruption and stopped payments of irregular contracts in the Department at different levels, including in hospitals. She took to heart the call to bring perpetrators of corruption and looting of public resources to book.
Crucial evidence Deokaran provided to the disciplinary processes conducted by the Office of the Premier and the SIU investigations led to successful dismissals within the Department. In addition, it resulted into the institution of civil claims to recover public funds from businesses and government officials responsible for malfeasance and corruption.
