Staff Reporter.
One of the men accused of killing Gauteng health department whistleblower Babita Deokaran has distanced himself from a “false confession” in which he implicated former health minister Zweli Mkhize.
He says it was made under duress.
The suspects’ bail application finally began on Tuesday morning, with their counsel – advocate Peter Wilkins – reading into the record an affidavit from accused one, Phakamani Radebe, in support of his bid for bail.
In his affidavit, Radebe pointed to a purported confession he had made after his arrest in August. While the state has since redacted the detail, he in this affidavit revealed that he had implicated Mkhize but claimed he was under duress at the time.
He claimed he had been tortured by the police and coerced into implicating Mkhize – whom he now says he has in fact never met, insisting he was simply telling the officers what he believed they wanted to.
He said that at some point of the apparent interrogation on the night he was arrested on 26 August 2021, he “urinated in his pants”.
The next day, he was allegedly told that a policeman would arrive the following day to take his confession and he was allegedly warned that should he not cooperate, he would be harmed.
He further told the court that a senior ANC figure did not hire him to commit the offence and he challenged the State to bring evidence to support this allegation.
Deokaran was gunned down outside her home in Mondeor, south Johannesburg, in August in what appears to have been a hit. Nothing was stolen. Deokaran, a high-ranking official at the Gauteng department of health, was a witness in various graft probes related to personal protective equipment (PPE) tenders hear.
Radebe and his five co-accused – Zitha Radebe, Nhlangano Ndlovu, Siphakanyiswa Dladla, Simphiwe Mazibuko and Sanele Mbele – were arrested less than a week later and are facing charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
They are also facing a charge of attempted murder relating to Deokaran’s domestic helper, who was with her at the time of the shooting and the bail application continues on Friday.