TimesLIVE reports that senior Gauteng health department finance officer Babita Deokaran, who was gunned down outside her Johannesburg South home on Monday, was a witness in the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) investigation into PPE purchase irregularities.
She died later in hospital. SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago confirmed that the 53-year-old Deokaran was one of 300 witnesses in the investigation into the Gauteng PPE scandal. “While we view what has happened in a very serious light and are very concerned by the murder of one of the witnesses in our case, we cannot yet attribute it to the investigation that we were conducting,” Kganyago indicated. He said that Deokaran’s death would not jeopardise the investigation as she was “one of many witnesses who we were relying on in our investigation.” Gauteng health department MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi said that Deokaran, whom she described as “invaluable”, worked as chief director of the financial accounting department and at times acted as the CFO.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Graeme Hoskin at BusinessLive
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