Babita Deokaran: Lerato Madyo of Gauteng Health resigns as hearing delays continue
Murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran alerted Gauteng Health CFO Lerato Madyo to R850 million in payments at Tembisa Hospital.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has criticised the Gauteng Health Department for dragging out chief financial officer (CFO) Lerato Madyo’s disciplinary inquiry for two years and then accepting her resignation before the matter was concluded.
Madyo, suspended in August 2022, was accused of failing to oversee and prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditures. She was facing 13 misconduct charges concerning suspicious contracts that murdered whistleblower Babita Deokoran tried to stop at the Tembisa Hospital.
DA SLAMS GAUTENG HEALTH FOR ACCEPTING LERATO MADYO’S RESIGNATION
The South African previously reported that shortly before her death, Babita Deokaran flagged possibly fraudulent contracts worth R850 million and had asked for an audit, but Madyo did not do this.
During the inquiry, Gauteng Health’s head of department, Sibongile Zungu, revealed that she wasn’t aware of any call for a probe into the fraudulent contracts at Tembisa Hospital. Surprisingly, Madyo indicated to Deokaran that she had escalated the matter and requested approval for an investigation.
A top ANC official in Gauteng, Sello Sekhokho, who was the ANC treasurer-general in Ekurhuleni at the time, was named in the corruption scandal.
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko revealed that the party bigwig had 55 contracts with Tembisa Hospital, involving his three companies.
The companies provided cleaning products, PPE, office supplies, and even groceries. Moreover, Sekhokho doubled his haul in 2021 when the late Ashley Mthunzi was appointed CEO.
All individual payments between Tembisa Hospital and Sello Sekhokho were under R500 000. This means they didn’t have to be reviewed, and Mthunzi could approve the transaction himself.