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Age of the Assassin

Slain Gauteng health manager Babita Deokaran’s sister shares heartfelt and angry letter about her murder

Babita Deokaran’s sister Renu Williams has posted a letter to South Africans on her Facebook page, begging that her sister’s death not be in vain and calling for the ‘barbarians’ who mowed her down to ‘experience hell on Earth’. 
Slain Gauteng health manager Babita Deokaran’s sister shares heartfelt and angry letter about her murder Babita Deokaran, the senior Gauteng Health Department official who was gunned down outside her home in Johannesburg. (Photo: Facebook)
Renu Williams
By Renu Williams
26 Aug 2021
Facebook
7

Babita Deokaran was a key witness and whistle-blower in various investigations into fraud and corruption, most notably tenders linked to Covid-19.

We publish Renu Williams’ post in full.

#justiceforbabitadeokaran 

Babita Deokaran's sister Renu Williams. Photo: Facebook
Babita Deokaran's sister Renu Williams. Photo: Facebook

Dear South Africans,

I am usually positive and hopeful for our country despite the naysayers and bad news that never seems to end. Our people are mostly amazing people.

But now as we get ready to say goodbye to my sister tomorrow I am embarrassed, disgusted and angry! In other parts of the world honesty is applauded and celebrated. Accolades are showered on you. You are a hero.

This is my sister Babita Deokaran. She was rewarded for being an honest, hardworking and loyal government employee by having 12 bullets pumped into her. She had no chance; the perpetrators did not want to scare her. They wanted to eliminate her. Where in the world is that okay and acceptable? Where in the world are you punished in such a heinous way for doing your job and doing it honestly?

My sister was not just a number in the government system. She is a treasured mum, a sister, an aunt, a friend and a colleague. She is loved more than anything and now a family is literally shattered and a child is left motherless. My sister had dreams, my sister loved life and now all that was taken away by these barbarians. She was full of love, laughter and joy. She loved cooking, watching cooking shows (even in languages she didn't understand), travelling and she lived for her daughter whom she loved and adored. My sister was a strong, humble, brilliant woman of immense worth.

South Africans, we all need to be angry. We cannot accept this. My sister should not lose her promising future in vain. If we can make this country better for her daughter and nieces and nephews, I know she would believe that she did not sacrifice her life in vain.

Please share this post far and wide. South Africans need to stand together and not be quiet until my sister’s perpetrators are punished. I pray they and their families experience hell on Earth and in the hereafter. DM/MC

Comments

Charles Parr Aug 26, 2021, 11:32 AM

Renu, you every right to feel disgusted and angry and many, many South Africans stand in solidarity with you and her daughter.

Johannes Hamman Aug 26, 2021, 11:33 AM

RIP brave lady. Unfortunately the most we can expect is that a 'trigger man' will eventually be held accountable while the ones who ordered the hit will be protected and go about spending the money they stole.

Hendrik Jansen van Rensburg Aug 26, 2021, 02:54 PM

May she rest in peace. What a horrific, tragic loss for this patriot's daughter and the rest of her family. What a monumental loss for South Africa. What an horrific indictment of the ANC and its inexcusable policy of cadre deployment. As they did to izimpimpi in the 1980s, so they continue to do to those who stand in the way of their evil deeds today.

Kenneth Jeenes Jeenes Aug 26, 2021, 03:46 PM

Renu, though I never knew or even met your sister, I can only imagine your pain, your outrage and a million other feelings that words simply cannot express.

Gert McCarthy Aug 26, 2021, 04:16 PM

Renu, I share your outrage, can only imagine your pain and anguise. They must pay for this evil deed. All involved must be brought to justice, every one of them !

Colette Hinton Aug 26, 2021, 04:27 PM

Renu, my heart breaks for you and all the people who have lost your beloved sister, aunt, mother and friend. She was a person of the highest integrity and honour and was punished for this! We must all make sure that she is never forgotten and that the perpetrators face the full might of the law. May God bless you all in your grief and pain.

Dennis Bailey Aug 26, 2021, 04:27 PM

Well done, Renu, for calling it what it is: barbaric. It is barbaric when honest women expose the corrupt in barbaric government and get shot by the same barbaric government she shopped. This same government, the vast majority of the barbaric electorate of South African, elected and support and will do so again in this next election without a doubt. We live in a barbaric country that pretends to be something else. It is as barbaric as you have experienced. My condolences to you and your sisters family for the loss of a sister, mother, breadwinner and for being subjected to the barbarism of the barbaric South African electorate. We are barbarians and your experience proves it.