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It is scandalous that the Gauteng Health Department dragged out the disciplinary enquiry of Chief Financial Officer Lerato Madyo for two years, and then accepted her resignation before it was concluded.

Madyo was facing 13 misconduct charges concerning suspicious contracts that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokoran tried to stop at the Tembisa Hospital. She was accused of a failure to do oversight and to prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

According to a SIU investigation, the full scope of the corruption at Tembisa Hospital includes grossly over-priced contracts from shelf companies, amounting to about R3 billion siphoned off by criminal syndicates.

Shortly before her death, Babita had asked for an audit to be done of the "possibly fraudulent" contracts, but Madyo did not do this, and it was left to journalists to expose the immense scope of the corruption that triggered the SIU investigation.

I suspect the department deliberately delayed Madyo's disciplinary process to protect others who were implicated. They should not have accepted her resignation before it was concluded, and her pension should have been frozen to enable recovery of money that may be proven to have been lost because of her negligence.

An aggravating factor is that Madyo was paid more than R3 million while suspended on full pay.

The best legacy for Babita would be a completely reformed Gauteng Health Department where corruption is eliminated.

My view is that the cover-up continues at this department, and whistle-blowers like Babita would again be silenced.

Issued by Jack Bloom MPL - DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC