Tembisa Hospital's corruption demonstrates that healthcare procurement fraud kills — not just through diverted resources, but through the literal murder of those who try to stop it.
The corruption predated COVID-19 but escalated dramatically during the pandemic. Emergency procurement regulations relaxed normal tender requirements. At Tembisa, orders were placed at volumes ten times or more what comparable facilities ordered, at prices 5-10 times market rates.
Babita Deokaran, acting chief director of financial accounting at Gauteng Health, discovered the pattern and reported everything to the SIU. On 23 August 2021, she was shot multiple times outside her home after dropping her daughter at school. She was 53.
Six hitmen were convicted in 2023 (6-22 years). They testified they were paid R400,000 for the killing. The investigation into who ordered the hit — the officials and service providers whose corruption she was exposing — continues.
Health MEC Bandile Masuku was removed by Premier David Makhura in October 2020 after SIU findings. The SIU Special Tribunal pursued civil recovery of stolen funds.