PODCAST | The Lead: Babita Deokaran Day? 4 years later, calls to honour whistleblower

In this special edition of The Lead on News24,investigative journalist Jeff Wicks asks: Did Gauteng health department corruption whistleblower Babita Deokaran die in vain?

Supplied | Overlay Graphic: Sharlene Rood,Graeme Raubenheimer/News24

This Saturday,23 August,marks exactly four years to the day since Babita Deokaran,a single mother,was murdered.

Gunned down in a hail of bullets fired from the firearms of hired hitmen,what we didn’t know at the time was that the Gauteng health department’s chief accountant had just recently internally flagged and frozen some R100 million in payments emanating from Tembisa Hospital.

Soon,News24’s intrepid investigative journalist,Jeff Wicks,would uncover,with access to Babita’s massive email database,how the overcrowded Gauteng East Rand health facility was transformed into a giant state fund feeding ground for the province’s politically connected criminal underworld.

Today,Wicks wonders: Did Babita die in vain?

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The two-time Taco Kuiper award-winning investigative journalist is joined in this special panel discussion on The Lead by SAA corruption whistleblower Cynthia Stimpel,and OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage.

Stimpel suggests: shouldn’t 23 August be SA’s new day honouring whistleblowers?

You can send host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line,that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify,Apple and YouTube.

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