Tembisa Hospital Looting: A Callous Betrayal of the Poor

MEDIA STATEMENT

Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, 30 September 2025 — Public Interest SA is appalled — but not surprised — by the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) interim report, which lays bare the industrial-scale plunder of public funds at Tembisa Hospital. The report confirms what whistleblowers and ethical citizens have long warned: a cancerous syndicate of greed, collusion, and criminality has hollowed out the very institution meant to provide life-saving healthcare to the most vulnerable in our society.

Over R2 billion — funds earmarked to heal the sick, comfort the dying, and provide relief to the poor — was instead siphoned off into the pockets of corrupt tenderpreneurs and their complicit enablers inside government. In place of medicines, hospital beds, and life-sustaining supplies, South Africans are confronted with obscene displays of wealth: Lamborghinis, Bentleys, multimillion-rand seaside mansions, and luxury estates, all paid for with blood money stolen from the poor.

This grotesque betrayal is not only an assault on the fiscus but an assault on the dignity and lives of ordinary South Africans who are daily denied the most basic of healthcare services. The corruption at Tembisa Hospital is not negligence; it is premeditated economic violence against the downtrodden.

The SIU’s revelations of coordinated syndicates — backed by a shameless network of officials at every level of the Gauteng Department of Health — expose systemic rot. That procurement fraud could be orchestrated through falsified documents, split tenders, and ghost suppliers without triggering alarms at head office underscores the complicity or willful blindness of senior authorities. It is no coincidence that the late whistleblower, Babita Deokaran, paid with her life for daring to expose this rot.

We also recognise and salute the role played by investigative journalists, whose relentless pursuit of the truth kept this scandal in the public eye. In particular, News24’s Jeff Wicks laboured tirelessly to uncover the patterns of looting at Tembisa Hospital, his work directly contributing to the accountability processes that have now culminated in the SIU’s report. His courage and persistence embody the indispensable role of a free press in holding power to account.

South Africans should be enraged that while patients lay in overcrowded wards without medication, corrupt officials and their cronies were laundering public funds through fake companies and luxury assets. This is not maladministration — it is organised crime masquerading as governance.

Public Interest SA demands:

• Immediate prosecution of all implicated individuals, no matter how politically connected or senior.

• Comprehensive asset forfeiture to claw back every cent looted from the public purse.

• Lifestyle audits for officials across the Gauteng Department of Health and beyond, extending to family members and associates.

• Institutional reforms to entrench transparency, protect whistleblowers, and ensure that consequence management is not the exception but the rule.

"The blood-stained billions looted from Tembisa Hospital are a chilling reminder that corruption is not a victimless crime. It kills — silently, daily, and disproportionately among the poor.

The time for cosmetic reforms and hollow promises is over. South Africa demands justice. The corrupt must not only be exposed; they must be jailed, stripped of their ill-gotten wealth, and barred from ever again looting the state. Anything less would be an unforgivable insult to the memory of Babita Deokaran, to the courage of journalists like Jeff Wicks, and to the countless South Africans who continue to die waiting for healthcare they have already paid for," says Tebogo Khaas, chairperson of Public Interest SA.

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Issued by: Public Interest SA