
Babita Deokaran
Age: 53
Home: Johannesburg
Babita Deokaran refused to remain silent when she discovered a network of financial fraud and corruption in the Gauteng Department of Health. On the morning of 23 August 2021, Deokaran left her house in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg and drove her daughter to school. When she returned, she was confronted by six armed assassins who shot her while she was in her car in the driveway of her home.
Six suspects were arrested for Deokaran’s murder. On the eve of the second anniversary of her death they were found guilty and sentenced to a combined total of 95 years imprisonment. The identity of the person who ordered Deokaran’s murder remains unknown.
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It is brave people like Deokaran who will speak out and then be mercilessly taken out. It should not require death threats for whistle-blowers to be offered protection.


While she was alive Deokaran had to work hard to persuade authorities of the evidence of wrongdoing which she had come across. After she was killed, her death caused shockwaves around South Africa, with many civil society organisations, the media and members of the judiciary calling on government to provide better protection for whistle-blowers.
Many criticised the fact that government employees were given protection details while whistle-blowers were not. As Pops Rampersad, the leader of the Active Citizens’ Movement (ACM) which campaigns for whistle-blower rights, put it: “It is brave people like Deokaran who will speak out and then be mercilessly taken out. It should not require death threats for whistle-blowers to be offered protection.”
While she was alive Deokaran had to work hard to persuade authorities of the evidence of wrongdoing which she had come across. After she was killed, her death caused shockwaves around South Africa, with many civil society organisations, the media and members of the judiciary calling on government to provide better protection for whistle-blowers.
Many criticised the fact that government employees were given protection details while whistle-blowers were not. As Pops Rampersad, the leader of the Active Citizens’ Movement (ACM) which campaigns for whistle-blower rights, put it: “It is brave people like Deokaran who will speak out and then be mercilessly taken out. It should not require death threats for whistle-blowers to be offered protection.”