It took 12 months and protests by political parties for the CEO of Tembisa Hospital, Ashley Mthunzi to be suspended following the brutal death of Babita Deokaran, a whistle-blower who was gunned down outside her house in August 2021.
Babita had flagged R850m in the infamous PPE scandal that rocked Tembisa Hospital.
Mthunzi is currently under precautionary suspension while law enforcement and the health department investigate this matter further.
According to Deokaran’s report, she had contacted the chief financial officer (CFO) of Tembisa Hospital, and she had discussed her findings, and this included companies that did not even have addresses.
It’s now 16 months since her death and life continues.
Another whistleblower Mathapelo More who is a former internal auditor at Daybreak Farms left home and dry after she blew a whistle on her bosses in a bid to prevent the theft of more than R200m from a company owned by state pensioners.
She is now on her knees, unable to pay for school fees and almost losing her home.
More said she faced two years of financial difficulties and harassment after speaking out against wrongdoing at the company.
One example she gave, is when the company was charged R84 000 for a Christmas card from the board chairperson.
Another victim is Martha Ngoye, Head of Legal, Risk, and Compliance at PRASA who testified in the State Capture Commission, she was barred from entering her office after the arbitrator ruled in her favor.
According to her, the PA to the CEO said they still need to study the judgment.
Despite her win at the arbitration, she is left with a huge debt because it was her case and the costs were not awarded.
Whistleblowing is dangerous in South Africa as those who save the country millions if not billions are red-flagged as unemployable or even killed as was the case of Babita or Fort Hare’s VC Prof Sakhela Buhlungu whose bodyguard was killed.
In one of the cases, Buhlungu red flagged was when 48 toilet papers were charged R15 000, and the politicians shockingly made it into the Master’s program despite not having met the minimum requirements.
Last week during the Tot’ Spur saga Themba Khumalo, the acting CEO of SA Tourism publicly said whoever leaked the letter must be isolated. Based on what happened to the other whistleblowers your guess is good as what Khumalo meant.
Vincent Magwenya, Presidency spokesperson did not respond to our questions including if the president has condemned the murder of Thulani Maseka, Eswatini’s human rights lawyer.
Step UP SA News is looking for 6 junior journalists in five districts of Free State Province as it prepares to print. The two will be based in Bloemfontein and the rest will be in each district.
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