By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The chief financial officer of the Gauteng Health Department Lerato Madyo, and the chief executive officer of Tembisa Hospital Ashley Mthunzi have both been suspended with immediate effect.
The Gauteng Provincial Government made the announcement on Friday.
The department said Madyo and Mthunzi were suspended “to ensure that their presence in the office does not impede the investigation of the serious allegations pertaining to the improper procurement and payment of service providers at Tembisa Hospital”.
It said: Given the seriousness of the allegations and the possible link to the murder case of Babita Deokaran – former chief director of finance, exemplary public servant and courageous whistleblower, who was brutally killed a year ago – the Special Investigating Unit has been appointed to investigate these allegations with urgency.
Deokaran was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside her home in Winchester Hills, south Johannesburg on 23 August 2021 in what appears to have been a hit.
The department says a criminal case has also been opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The statement noted Gauteng Premier David Makhura “welcomed the precautionary suspensions and further confirmed that the Gauteng government has referred the matter to the Special Investigating Unit for forensic investigation on an urgent basis”.
Makhura said the state has a duty to protect whistleblowers and upright public servants.
“We will never surrender to the crooks and corrupt elements; and will do everything in our power to fight corruption and state capture with every iota of our being,” he said.
In the weeks before her assassination last year, Deokaran stumbled across a surge in spending out of the East Rand hospital and called for a stop to payments and an urgent investigation. Her pleas were ignored.