Malady of corruption plagues Gauteng Department of Health

Jeff Wicks' The Shadow State exposes the department's systemic corruption: billions stolen, whistle-blowers targeted and patients left to die. This malignant rot continues largely unchallenged. By Mark Heywood

- By Mark Heywood

There is a scene in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth where Macbeth, experiencing a flickering moment of conscience, laments: "I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er.

(Translation: I've caused so much harm that even if I wanted to stop now, turning back from this course would be as difficult as continuing.)

As I turned page after page of The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran Had to Die, by News24 journalist Jeff Wicks, Macbeth’s words seemed a fitting way to describe the ANC leadership in Gauteng.

These leaders, who run a government that is supposed to provide essential health services to 16 million people, come from a party that has a noble lineage. However, once in power, ANC leaders assumed they had a divine right to rule.

Tempted by the proximity of vast sums of easy money, many of its leaders evolved into a sovereign mafia that has robbed the Gauteng government blind at an inestimable cost in human life and dignity.

They behave as if they are accountable only to themselves. No amount of protest seems to actually shame them.

The Shadow State is an anti-monument to this party. It’s a masterclass in investigative journalism that should be taught to future generations of journalists. But its subject is a forensic analysis of the cancer of corruption that, untreated, has metastasised across the Gauteng government, and its Department of Health in particular.

Finally, it’s an indictment, hopefully a curse from the grave, by those who have been killed and harmed by corruption. “J'accuse!” say the dead. “You may not be in prison, but you must all be assumed guilty until proven innocent.”

The Shadow State reignited my anger, as it should yours. I found the description of Babita Deokaran’s shooting, her last minutes on a life-support machine with her daughter and brother by her side, painful to read.