During the country’s extraordinary COVID-19 shut down last year, a 53-year-old Indian-origin lady was allegedly killed for revealing relevant information regarding a multi-million-dollar PPE fraud. Babita Deokaran, a senior officer with the Gauteng provincial Department of Health, arrived home in a Johannesburg neighbourhood after dropping her child off at school on Tuesday and she was shot numerous times through her car door.

She was taken to the hospital but died as a result of her injuries. Deokaran was killed after providing crucial information about a 330 million rand (over USD 20 million) fraud in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa last year.

According to Kaizer Kganyago, a Serious Crime Investigation Unit (SIU) spokesperson, Deokaran was one of the witnesses in the unit’s investigation into corruption in the health department, which was already getting underway.