Calls grow for independent investigative bodies after Tembisa Hospital scandal

702's John Perlman chats to Professor Alex Van Den Heever from the Wits School of Governance.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below:

The unfolding scandal at Tembisa Hospital, where over R2 billion in irregular expenditure occurred over a number of years, has raised serious concerns about the failure of South Africa's financial oversight systems. 

ALSO READ: Tembisa Hospital scandal a ‘crime against humanity’ - Advocate Ezra Letsoalo (Gauteng Health Portfolio Committee Chair) 

Despite the presence of central monitoring tools like the BAS (Basic Accounting System) and oversight from the provincial treasury, no meaningful intervention took place until whistleblower Babita Deokaran flagged the corruption, a move that ultimately cost her life.

Van Den Heever says the suggestion that only low-level officials were responsible is implausible. 

"This was not merely a bunch of low-level officials just being bribed to sign forms."

- Professor Alex Van Den Heever, Wits School of Governance

He argues that internal systems would have immediately flagged these issues, indicating a deliberate decision by senior figures to let the looting continue unchecked.

Van Den Heever also criticises the centralisation of investigative power within the police, making it easy for corrupt actors to shield themselves from scrutiny. 

He adds that institutions like SARS, the Financial Intelligence Centre, and banks are often sidelined or limited in their ability to investigate suspicious financial flows, even when repeated red flags are raised.

"The powers to investigate - to do intelligence-type investigations - are concentrated in the South African Police Services, and they don't allow it to go to SARS. They don't allow it to go to provincial police services. They don't allow it anywhere else. It's controlled at a central level, and it shouldn't be. When SARS did attempt to do this, that's when you had this whole attack on SARS that occurred during state capture..."

- Professor Alex Van Den Heever, Wits School of Governance

"We actually should have greater transparency and be able to red flag and investigate to a greater extent than we do. We should have it in a structure that can't be shut down by a politician being bribed...So those are the problems, very concentrated powers of investigation and easy to shut down if you bribed a person at the top."

- Professor Alex Van Den Heever, Wits School of Governance

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