‘We will weaponise your legacy against the mafia state, and refuse to let the truth be buried with you’

This tribute not only remembers her legacy but also challenges us to protect those who stand for truth, writes Neeshan Balton, executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation Join us as we unveil a monument to Babita Deokaran, a courageous whistleblower whose fight against corruption cost her life. This tribute not only remembers her legacy but also challenges us to protect those who stand for truth, writes Neeshan Balton, executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation WE ARE gathered here today in Mount Edgecombe, on National Women’s Day, for an act of solemn, heartbreaking remembrance. We unveil a bust of Babita Deokaran on the very grounds where she once walked, learned, worshipped, and truly belonged.

In doing so, we bring her story home. But as we look upon this bronze, please, let us not allow the monument to replace the woman. Let us remember Babita not just as a name in the news, but as a deeply devoted mother, a loyal public servant, and a woman whose fierce integrity could never be bought, bullied, or buried.

This unveiling is a direct call to our collective conscience. If Babita paid the ultimate price for the truth, then we must ask ourselves: will we honour that sacrifice with empty words, or will we find the courage to protect those who still stand where she once stood? I had the profound privilege of knowing Babita through the digital threads of our work.

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Before we talk about broken systems or corrupt syndicates, we must pause and ache for the human being whose name brings us here. The danger of public grief is that a person can become a symbol too quickly. Babita was a symbol, yes – but before any of that, she was a mother, a colleague, a neighbour, and a woman whose life was violently stolen from her.

On the July 31, 2020, Babita reached out to me. Her message was simple, yet heavy with the weariness of a decades-long struggle. She wrote: “Morning Sir this is Babita Deokaran the Chief Director Finance in Gauteng Health.

Can I please engage you?” She went on to describe the modus operandi of a department she had faithfully served for over 14 years. It was a chilling blueprint of how honest officials are systematically isolated, disciplinary processes are weaponised, and manufactured charges are used to crush those who stand in the way. She and other honest managers were suspended for the flimsiest reasons – a missed meeting, a delayed report, or an unanswered phone call at 7am on a Sunday morning.

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