Babita Deokaran’s family still seek justice

 “We have heard nothing from the police”

It has just been over a year since Babita Deokaran was gunned down in front of her home.

The Comaro Chronicle met up with her brother-in-law to find out how they have been coping and what this past year has been like for the family.

“That morning, she sent a message to the family group chat like she always did,” said pastor Tony Haripersadh of his sister-in-law.

Tony was used to her morning messages. “She was full of life, the glue that held the family together.”

But her message that morning was to be the last one he would receive from his sister-in-law.

Later in the day on August 23, 2021, she was gunned down outside her home in Johannesburg south. Deokaran had just returned home from dropping her daughter off at school. The windows of her car were smashed and the driver’s door was peppered with bullet holes.

“It was an orchestrated, close-range targeted killing,” said Tony.

Tony acknowledged the bravery his sister-in-law’s actions entailed. “She was a very strong, courageous woman, she endured this battle all alone,” he said.

He told the Comaro Chronicle he only wished he had known of her whistle-blowing while she was alive so that he could have advised or protected her.

Babita was acting CFO at the Gauteng Department of Health. She was also a key witness in an ongoing special investigating unit probe into the alleged corrupted procurement tenders of personal protective equipment in the department, the province and throughout SA.

“We’ve heard nothing from the cops,” said Haripersadh.

“There is a grave disconnect between the government’s anti-corruption rhetoric and its anti-corruption machinery. The government has an anti-corruption strategy, but this will not work if witnesses and whistle-blowers are not offered protection,” he said.

Babita’s brother-in-law is demanding justice.

“Our prayer as a family is that justice must prevail. Those that were responsible for her assassination, those that ordered her assassination, and the perpetrators must be brought to book.

“We have faith to believe that the justice system in South Africa will prevail. Those responsible must be identified and brought to the book.

“But as a family may I also say, as a pastor, we firmly believe that even if they get away here, God is watching. Someday we will have to stand before God and give an account of our lives. She has not died in vain, she died for South Africa,” he said.

“What we have been through in the past year, we do not wish that any other family in South Africa goes through the same hurt, pain and anguish that we have experienced.

“We feel the same way we felt one year ago when she was taken from us. May God bless South Africa,” he said.

Tembisa Hospital CEO Ashley Mthunzi was suspended after the SIUt was called in by Gauteng premier David Makhura.

WATCH: Deokaran’s murder suspects remain in custody after postponement