Babita Deokaran lecturer spotlights whistleblower safety, corruption in State, corporate

Insufficient protection for whistleblowers and corrupt practices within corporate business and the State are under the spotlight at the University of Stellenbosch on Tuesday, at the inaugural Babita Deokaran lecture.

It’s been four years since Deokaran was gunned down in front of her home for exposing over R850 million in corrupt tenders at Tembisa Hospital.

Academics say higher education institutions need to take a hard look at the kinds of graduates they are sending into the business world, who are complicit in designing structures that allow corruption to flourish.

Stellenbosch University director of the School of Public Leadership Professor Zweli Ndevu said Deokaran’s death in 2021 was a turning point in public discourse, exposing the lack of resources to protect whistleblowers.

“It would seem that with every person being assassinated, with every whistleblower keeping quiet, corruption exacerbates.”

Professor Armand Bam of the university’s Business School said Deokaran did not die because of corruption in government alone, but because graft is eco-systemic.

“When corrupt tenders were awarded, someone signed them from the private side. When personal protection equipment fraud flourished, it flourished because companies opened the door, walked inside and asked what they could get away with.”

Bam said teaching business management and leadership at university need to be accompanied by also instilling values of moral accountability, conscience and courage.