{"id":838070,"date":"2025-09-22T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=838070"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:21:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:21:47","slug":"the-government-paid-r9800-per-bucket-which-costs-r150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/838070\/the-government-paid-r9800-per-bucket-which-costs-r150\/","title":{"rendered":"The government paid R9,800 per bucket which costs R150"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Award-winning News24 journalist Jeff Wicks revealed that the Gauteng Health Department massively overpaid for numerous products due to an extensive corruption scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was one of the facts shared by Wicks in his new book, The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran had to die<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book, Wicks provided details about the events leading up to Babita Deokaran\u2019s murder in 2021. He also followed the story after she was assassinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deokaran was a civil servant who worked her way up from an accounting clerk to the acting chief director of financial accounting at the Gauteng Department of Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2021, she halted R850 million in suspicious payments to hundreds of companies linked to Tembisa Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She uncovered a sophisticated extraction network draining public health funds meant for the poorest communities, and called for a forensic investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 11 August 2021, she alerted the department\u2019s chief financial officer that their lives could be in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMorning CFO, I am just worried that the guys in Tembisa are going to realise we are onto something. Our lives could be in danger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her boss, Lerato Madyo, replied: \u201cMorning Babita, I have requested the HOD\u2019s grant approval for the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a lie. No investigation was ever launched. The payments were released after her death,\u201d Wicks said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deokaran was shot dead in a hail of bullets outside her home in Mondeor, Johannesburg. She had just dropped off her daughter at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the hitmen paid to kill her were caught, Wicks started to investigate the murder, asking who ordered it and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Deokaran, he soon learned about shell companies, inflated prices, and collusive bidding linked to the Gauteng Department of Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her decision to stop the money meant exposing the syndicate. \u201cIn South Africa\u2019s shadow state, whistleblowers who threaten billion-rand corruption networks don\u2019t live long,\u201d Wicks said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of the corrupt deals which Wicks uncovered<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Jeff Wicks, author of The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran had to die<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wicks uncovered numerous dubious contracts under R500,000, which a hospital chief executive could approve without going to tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A handful of connected individuals, using numerous companies they registered, use this weakness to create an extensive extraction network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many contracts under R500,000 were pushed through for products with highly inflated prices. The difference was pocketed by the corrupt individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wicks highlighted a few of the contracts at the Tembisa hospital and the products with their inflated prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The state paid R9,800 per plastic bucket. They should have cost R150 each.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Headblocks, which should cost R700 each, were sold at R4,485.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Cervical collars, which should cost R120 each, were sold at R2,106.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • Rain suits were sold at R17,000 each.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          • V-neck jerseys were sold at R11,500 each.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • Brown leather shoes were sold at R10,370 each.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

              Wicks uncovered numerous contracts under R500,000 through which connected individuals extracted large amounts of money from the Gauteng Department of Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              He uncovered an audacious web of crooked officials, criminal syndicates and ANC politicians, siphoning away billions meant for patients in Gauteng’s public hospitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Award-winning News24 journalist Jeff Wicks revealed that the Gauteng Health Department massively overpaid for numerous products due to an extensive corruption scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":838072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[23657,23656,20305,23655],"class_list":["post-838070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-babita-deokaran","tag-gauteng-health-department","tag-jeff-wicks","tag-lerato-madyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838075,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838070\/revisions\/838075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}