9 Tembisa Tertiary Hospital officials who rigged inflated medical supply contracts are still at work with no disciplinary action having been taken against them months after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) identified the officials who rubber-stamped corrupt purchase agreements worth R1 billion.

The contracts are part of the network flagged by deceased whistleblower Babita Deokaran, who was the Chief Director of Financial Accounting for the Gauteng Department of Health at the time of her assassination. She was shot 12 times on 23 August 2021 to prevent the uncovering of that corruption, and to send a message to others who attempt to blow the whistle on corruption in the future. 

The 9 officials responsible for rubber-stamping the corrupt medical supply purchase agreements, as identified by the SIU in a report released in December 2022, are:

• D Nobugwana (Admin Clerk),
• L Mojela (DD Supply chain),
• V Chako (Physiotherapist),
• MA Maphumulo (Chief Physiotherapist),
• NL Kobe (Financial Clerk),
• DE Monnagotla (Asst. Manager Nursing),
• P Mtuze (Financial Clerk),
• V Mtwezi (Food Service Manager), and
• Dr Radulescu (Medical Officer).

The SIU recommended that these 9 officials face disciplinary action, but they remain in their posts still today. 

Before Deokaran was killed, she had compiled a forensic report profiling 224 companies involved in corruption in the Department of Health. In the weeks leading up to her death, Doekaran had flagged R850-million in dodgy payments out of Tembisa Hospital. Since then, the SIU has also investigated these 224 companies, but they have still not been blacklisted by the Gauteng Department of Health.

The faces behind these companies, and the main individual beneficiaries of these irregular procurement practices, are Dr Stefan Govindraju, who received about R437 million; then the Maumela family at R336 million; the Mazibuko family who received R249 million; and finally Sello Sekhokho, the ANC Ekurhuleni treasurer-general, who received more than R80 million in tenders from Tembisa and other hospitals around the province, despite reportedly not having a valid certificate to sell medical products.

Despite these findings having been made by the SIU in December 2022 already, no one has been arrested, blacklisted or dismissed. Surely this is an insult to the memory of and work done by Babita Deokaran who gave her life fighting corruption in our country so that we could have a better future. If the wheels of justice turn slowly, at the very least we demand that the Gauteng Department of Health, as well as the National Department of Health and Gauteng Premier to intervene, and:

• suspend with immediate effect the 9 listed officials identified by the SIU report, pending disciplinary action;
• immediately blacklist the 224 companies investigated and identified by the SIU to have been involved in this corruption. 

Image: News24