Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa: Ms Babita Deokaran Annual Lecture

Programme Director, distinguished representatives of Stellenbosch University’s School of Public Leadership, the Anti-Corruption Centre for Education and Research, our partners across civil society and business, honoured guests, and above all the Deokaran family; thank you for inviting me to this Annual Lecture in Babita’s name, to celebrate courage and to insist on justice for whistleblowers.

We gather where scholarship meets public purpose and where an agenda of accountability is carried forward by voices as diverse as the Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, the Chairperson of the Public Service Commission Professor Somadoda Fikeni, and leaders of civic organisations who have stood firm against corruption.

The programme today reflects that unity of intent: a community bound by the conviction that ethical governance is not a slogan but a lived practice, and that truth-telling is not a risk to be borne alone but a civic act that the state must protect.

I speak, as Minister responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, with both humility and urgency. Humility, because we honour a public servant who embodied the best of our state: ethics, integrity, and honesty. Urgency, because the conditions that endangered her life are rife among other whistleblowers and demand decisive action.

Babita Deokaran’s story is the national tragedy that remains a sad and unfinished story. She rose within the Gauteng Department of Health to the post of acting chief director for financial accounting, and she was, by every credible account, an indispensable ally of the Special Investigating Unit and a bulwark against irregular payments.

In the weeks before her assassination on 23 August 2021, she flagged nearly R850 million in suspicious transactions linked to Tembisa Hospital, tried to halt about R100 million in payments, and sent a warning that “our lives could be in danger.” She was ambushed outside her home and died because she stood between criminal syndicates and public money meant for patient care.

Her work exposed not a single aberration but a networked “extraction economy”: suppliers and connected intermediaries feeding off hospital budgets through inflated invoices, bizarre purchases of non-medical items, and a flood of transactions routed through dozens of shell entities.

The subsequent SIU investigation confirmed the breadth of the rot and, by September this year, identified syndicates linked to more than R2 billion in looting at Tembisa, implicating at least 15 officials and triggering asset freezes and referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority.

The figure eclipses the initial R850 million Babita flagged, a testament to how corruption spread when the system failed to act with urgency after she raised the alarm. Six men were convicted of her murder, but the masterminds remain to be held to account.

We are grateful for every investigative breakthrough. We need to do more with urgency

It is true that our whistleblower framework has, for too long, left courageous individuals exposed. The Protected Disclosures Act was designed to shield employees from occupational harm, but its coverage and mechanisms have not kept pace with reality. It does not adequately protect contractors, volunteers, or family members; it has weak confidentiality provisions; it lacks supportive structures for legal, security, and psychosocial assistance; and it does not provide incentives that match the personal risk whistleblowers take.

That is why the Department of Justice’s process, prompted by the Zondo Commission’s recommendations, to draft a Whistleblower Protection Bill and review witness‑protection systems, is not only welcome but indispensable. The reforms being discussed include expanding the definition of a whistleblower, criminalising threats, creating dedicated support agencies, enabling anonymous disclosures, and resourcing protection from the Criminal Assets Recovery Fund. We must support and accelerate these changes.

The imperative to protect truth‑tellers has sharpened further with the establishment of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, :  the Madlanga Commission, whose hearings began in September.

Constituted in July and chaired by retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, the Commission is probing allegations that cut to the bone of public trust, from interference in investigations to the infiltration of organised crime into policing and prosecution. The Department of Justice has indicated that witness‑protection guidelines for the Commission have been finalised; this is not a bureaucratic note but a life‑or‑death safeguard for those who step forward.

And yet, even as the nation undertakes that inquiry, we were confronted this past weekend by another devastating loss. Marius van der Merwe, known to the Commission as “Witness D”, was assassinated outside his home in Brakpan, reportedly ambushed with assault weapons as he returned from dinner with his family. He had testified in November about torture and a custodial death linked to operations in Brakpan, naming patterns of abuse and coercion that demanded investigation. The President condemned the killing as heinous, law enforcement activated a national manhunt through NATJOINT Structures, and civil society rallied to the family’s side.

We are hopeful that the three people who have been identified and one who has been interrogated will result in arrest and hard sentencing, including the masterminds behind the death of Marius van der Merwe.

We extend our deepest condolences, and we recommit, not with platitudes but with policy, to ensuring that no witness, whistleblower, or investigator faces such a fate without the full protection of the state. These murders are not random acts. Babita was killed because she blocked the flow of illicit payments; Witness D was killed because he lifted the veil on alleged state‑crime collusion. The causal chain, exposure, retaliation, and impunity, thrives where institutions are weak, oversight is performative, and consequences are sporadic. That chain must be broken at the local government level, where financial and procurement chaos create fertile ground for collusion.

Here, hard evidence speaks louder than any rhetoric. The Auditor‑General’s consolidated report on local government audit outcomes for 2023/24 shows that only 16% of our 257 municipalities achieved clean audits. Thirty-nine per cent obtained unqualified opinions with findings, 35% were qualified, 2% adverse, and 4% disclaimed, with a further 4% outstanding. Metros and intermediate cities are not immune; they manage a disproportionate share of public funds and household services, yet most failed to meet the benchmark of clean governance. This is not an abstract scorecard; it is the lived reality of communities that pay for water they do not receive, suffer infrastructure decay, and lose confidence in the state.

Accountability cannot be an annual plea; it must be a system of enforceable duties. In this regard, the Auditor‑General’s expanded powers, grounded in the Public Audit Amendment Act of 2018, have begun to bite. When a material irregularity is detected, the accounting officer must act to prevent loss and recover funds; failure to do so triggers remedial action, and ultimately, a certificate of debt that holds officials personally liable.

Last month, the Auditor-General issued the first certificate of debt: R4,616,074.66, against the municipal manager of Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality, for overclaimed kilometres and hours on a water tankering contract where remedial directives were ignored. This is a watershed moment. It signals that the era of “recommendations without consequences” is coming to an end.

As CoGTA, we will align all instruments under our mandate with this accountability architecture. In October 2020, the Local Government Anti-Corruption Forum was established under the chairship of the Special Investigating Unit, with CoGTA as the Secretariat, to coordinate law enforcement, oversight, provincial support, and civil society engagement in rooting out municipal corruption.

We have strengthened this forum’s utility by introducing quarterly progress reviews and joint action on investigations, ethics training, and fraud risk assessments aligned with the District Development Model. This must become the default ecosystem within which whistleblowers in municipalities are heard, protected, and supported.

At the same time, Parliament has moved to establish an ad hoc committee to examine allegations made by Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in his 6 July briefing on political killings and alleged interference. The committee has called for sworn submissions and begun hearings to separate speculation from evidence and to determine appropriate remedial action.

Our role, both as a department and as Cabinet, is to support the integrity of that process and ensure that any recommendations are translated into operational changes. The alignment between the ad hoc committee’s work and the Madlanga Commission is not incidental; it is a convergence of oversight designed to restore public trust in the criminal‑justice system.

But oversight alone will not protect truth‑tellers. We must move from investigations to guarantees that are firm, operational, and funded. Let me therefore set out the commitments that I will sponsor to the Presidency, and thereafter, Justice, Police, the Auditor-General, the SIU, SALGA, and civil society.

First, to institutionalise municipal whistleblower protocols as a mandatory element of council governance. Each municipality will be required to adopt and publicly display a safe reporting framework that includes anonymous digital channels aligned to national standards, secure evidence‑handling procedures, rapid referral pathways to the SIU and SAPS, and a duty on the Municipal Manager to trigger risk-based protective measures upon receipt of credible disclosures. The protocols will be audited annually and linked to the Auditor General’s material irregularity process, so that failure to protect whistleblowers is treated as a governance breach with financial consequences.

Second, to co-design, with the Department of Justice, a municipal tier of the forthcoming Whistleblower Protection Bill. Local government is where everyday corruption is experienced most directly; the bill would have to provide for protective orders that can be initiated at the municipal level, rapid access to protection services for whistleblowers and their families, and dedicated funding for legal, security, and psychosocial support.

I endorse the proposals advanced by the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council and civil‑society organisations to expand coverage beyond employees and to criminalise threats and the exposure of identities. I also support using the Criminal Assets Recovery Fund to support whistleblowers who lose income or incur costs as a result of their disclosures.

Third, we should embrace consequence management, not as a phrase but as a traceable set of actions. Where the Auditor‑General identifies a material irregularity, mayors and councils must act within defined deadlines. Where remedial directives are ignored, CoGTA will support the Auditor‑General in pursuing certificates of debt and will require provincial COGTAs to report quarterly on the collection of those debts and on disciplinary steps taken against officials.

Where law‑enforcement referrals are made, the Local Government Anti-Corruption Forum will track cases to completion and publish progress dashboards so that communities can see that justice is not deferred.

Fourth, for us to convene a Whistleblower Security Compact with NATJOINTS, the SIU, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, and provincial Community Safety departments to standardise threat assessment, rapid deployment, and protective surveillance for high-risk witnesses in municipal corruption matters. The activation witnessed in response to Witness D’s assassination must not be ad hoc; it must be an articulated system with triggers, timelines, and accountability, in lockstep with the Madlanga Commission’s witness guidelines.

Fifth, we should professionalise local government leadership and administration with ethics at the centre. This is already reflected in our ongoing review of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government, our push to stabilise coalitions, and the call for credible performance planning, financial discipline, and institutional integrity that the Auditor‑General has urged.

Professionalisation means not just qualifications and competencies, but character and conduct: leaders who set the ethical tone, protect whistleblowers, and refuse to accept unethical conduct.  

It means councils that insist on transparency in procurement, that interrogate patterns of small‑value slicing designed to evade tender thresholds, and that enforce consequence management for unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless expenditure.

Sixth, we would have to deepen partnerships with civic organisations that have been the everyday guardians of accountability. OUTA, Corruption Watch, PPLAAF, professional institutes, and business integrity units have played vital roles in exposing malfeasance and supporting whistleblowers. In this regard, our municipalities will formalise collaboration, including joint training, early warning analytics, and community reporting platforms, in districts with the highest procurement risks.

Seventh, we would have to honour the dead with measurable change. Babita’s death seeded a national reckoning about how the shadow state operates and how courageous individuals become targets when they stand in its way.

Witness D’s death is a fresh wound for a country determined not to be intimidated. We must translate mourning into mandates: audits that lead to debt certificates; disclosures that lead to prosecutions; evidence that leads to convictions; and an anti-corruption culture that is taught, led, and lived.

The picture in local government is grim, but not hopeless. There are municipalities that have maintained clean audits across cycles, proving that discipline and ethics can be institutionalised.

There are pockets of excellence where internal controls function as designed, where performance reports are credible, and where communities feel the difference in service quality. Those municipalities are not exceptions to be admired from a distance; they are models to be replicated through targeted support, peer learning, and the firm expectation that councils can, and must, improve.

I want to speak directly to municipal officials who are today wrestling with their own dilemmas: you have seen things that trouble your conscience; you fear the personal cost of exposing wrongdoing; you wonder if anyone will stand with you. Let me assure you: The government will stand with you. We will ensure that your disclosures are received safely, that your identity is protected, that your evidence is acted upon, and that the state is present not only in courtrooms but at your gate and by your side. The cost of speaking up must never again be the loss of your life or livelihood. The public service must be a place where courage is the norm, not a gamble.

In my capacity as the Minister of CoGTA, I also want to address councillors and mayors: leadership is not a title; it is the acceptance of moral responsibility. Demand integrity in supply‑chain decisions. Ask why orders are sliced below thresholds.

Insist on job cards that match kilometres driven and hours worked. Ask why water tankers are billing routes that do not exist. Hold your accounting officers to remedial deadlines; if they fail, support the issuance of certificates of debt. Do not defend the indefensible because it is politically convenient. The Auditor‑General has given us tools; use them.

To our partners in academia and civil society gathered here today, your platform matters. The Annual Lecture is not merely ceremonial; it is a convening of evidence, ethics, and action. The biographies and contributions of leaders featured in today’s programme remind us that public service is a virtue cultivated across institutions, from universities and ombudsman offices to investigative units and community organisations.

As we dedicate new books, share research, and teach ethics, let us ensure we are shaping a generation of officials and activists who cannot be bought, who cannot be silenced, and who are supported by systems that honour their courage.

Our fight against corruption is not just about theft and numbers; it is about dignity. When money meant for a hospital becomes profit for a shell company, it is the poorest patient who pays, with longer queues, with broken equipment, and with an avoidable death. When an official falsifies kilometres driven, it is the rural family without water who pays, with hours spent carrying buckets, with a day of school lost, with a burden borne by those who least deserve it.

When an investigator is killed for telling the truth, the whole of society pays, with fear, with cynicism, with a culture that whispers, “Keep your head down.” We must change that culture.

Change begins with honesty. It continues with systems. And it is sustained by courage. Babita’s honesty exposed the syndicate. The system failed her, and her courage became the reason the shadow state struck back. We will honour her by fixing the system and by ensuring that courage is rewarded, not punished. That is the meaning of our work: Every Municipality Must Work; every municipality must be ethical; every municipality must protect the truth‑teller.

I close with gratitude and resolve. Gratitude to the Deokaran family, whose dignity has deepened our national conscience and whose persistence demands justice that goes beyond the hitmen to those who ordered her murder.

Gratitude to the witnesses who continue to testify at the Madlanga Commission despite threats, and to the committees in Parliament who have insisted that allegations be tested and that the truth be pursued without fear or favour.

Resolve, because we know what must be done. This Administration will standardise municipal whistleblower protocols; support the Whistleblower Protection Bill and its witness‑protection reforms; enforce the Auditor‑General’s material‑irregularity process with consequence management up to and including certificates of debt; strengthen the Local Government Anti-Corruption Forum’s investigative coordination; and stand operationally ready with NATJOINTS to protect those at risk. We will publish progress, invite scrutiny, and measure outcomes, not only in reports but in lives safeguarded and monies recovered.

Babita’s legacy is not only a cautionary tale; it is a mandate. Witness D’s death is not only a tragedy; it is a warning and a call. We hear them both. And we commit, as leaders, institutions, and citizens, to building a capable, ethical, and developmental local government where integrity is habitual, and whistleblowers are treated not as liabilities but as the immune system of our democracy. May their courage be our standard. May their memory be our moral compass. And may our actions honour their sacrifice. I thank you.

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