The high-fives and jubilation of the six men who were sentenced for their role in stopping Gauteng health department official Babita Deokaran from “making problems” for corrupt tenderpreneurs bent on bleeding Tembisa hospital of almost a billion rand, is a nauseating mockery of justice.
But not quite as sickening to learn that the man offered up by the six as a key to the mastermind behind the heinous hit, Khanyisile Mpungose, who unlocked a sweetheart deal for them, is literally a dead end.
The Sunday Times revealed Mpungose was allegedly taken in for questioning two days after the August 2021 shooting, but released after there was seemingly no evidence linking him to the killing. Then four months later, Mpungose, the taxi boss was killed in an apparent feud in Germiston and died at Vosloorus Hospital.
This fact was devastating news to the Deokaran family, because nowhere in the plea-deal document is there any suggestion that Mpungose is dead, or that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is aware of this.
Phakamani Hadebe, Nhlangano Ndlovu, Sanele Mbhele, Siphakanyiswa Dladla, Zitha Radebe and Siphiwe Mazibuko were sentenced to between six years and 22 years. This on a raft of charges including murder and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition for their information that Mpungose and an unknown male were the ones who fired 11 bullets at Deokaran. They also fingered someone named Siphiwe Sithole as being involved in the plot.
It was devastating news to the Deokaran’s family because nowhere in the plea-deal document is there any suggestion that Mpungose is dead, or that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is aware of this.
The NPA claimed this was “substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence of life imprisonment”, partly because the six men “provided information about other people that were involved in Deokaran’s killing that was not known to the state”.
“The information provided to the SAPS will assist in unravelling the real mastermind behind the murder as further intensive investigations continue on the matter to ensure that justice is not only done but manifestly seen to be done,” Gauteng NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said in her statement.
A statement that reeks of duplicity when you consider the import of not disclosing Mpungose’s death is that the reality of finding the real mastermind behind the killing is unlikely.
That this deal has truly scuppered justice.
Sitting judge Motsamai Makume was certainly not satisfied, saying the mastermind was still in the wind.
The celebration over the sentencing came on the eve of two years marking Deokaran’s death. At a memorial where friends, family and colleagues gathered at The King Anglican Church in Mondeor, Johannesburg, reaction to the imprisonment was bleak and little consolation.
A family tribute summed it up.
“Her unwavering commitment to truth over power proved to be her ultimate undoing. As the six men convicted of her assassination face the consequences, a shadow of doubt looms over whether they are mere pawns masking more influential figures entwined in the personal protective equipment (PPE) scandal she bravely exposed at Tembisa Hospital. In this climate, it becomes imperative that, much like Babita, we all raise uncomfortable questions to ensure justice prevails.”
And so the questions must be asked.
Why did the NPA not disclose to the family that Mpungose was dead? Were they unaware as Mjonodwane suggested to the Sunday Times or, as a source claims — like the defence — apprised of the fact that he was killed in December 2021?
And are the Hawks or police any closer to the truth about the identity of the mastermind?
How did the six, who worked as taxi route officers and operators before their arrest — and didn’t earn for two years — afford the big-gun advocates who negotiated their cushy sentence?
This is not the time to hide behind bureaucracy and claim investigations are ongoing or play a blame game.
Now is the time to keep shining the torch of transparency by asking uncomfortable questions constantly, before the rot of corruption and cover-ups engulfs our nation.
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