'They stopped me from fighting corruption,' says axed health official

An axed senior health official who claims she was the first to blow the whistle on personal protective equipment (PPE) corruption in Gauteng says she now fears she will become another Babita Deokaran.

Deokaran, the acting chief financial officer at the Gauteng health department, was shot and killed outside her home in August. She had been a key whistleblower for years, alerting authorities to irregularities that she uncovered in the department.

This week, Thandy Pino, the former chief director of supply chain in the Gauteng health department, told the Sunday Times that she was the first person to raise the alarm about the disregard for procurement processes when the government was buying the equipment. Now she has been made a scapegoat, she says.

She said that on April 6 last year, and one week into her job, she wrote an e-mail to senior officials, including the head of the department, alerting them to the flouting of supply regulations. She was charged, disciplined, then dismissed after recommendations by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Pino told the Sunday Times that the SIU and Gauteng premier David Makhura had failed to protect her, instead labelling her an enabler of corruption.

“I remember someone saying the biggest thing about my story is Makhura coming out and calling me an enabler of corruption. If he did not say that, I probably would not have been charged,” she said.

“I have a career that was destroyed by a botched and messed-up investigation of the SIU. On my referral letter, nowhere does the SIU say I am the one who reported these irregularities when I did.”

Makhura’s spokesperson, Vuyo Mhaga, said the premier could not be blamed for what happened to Pino.

“The SIU investigated the matter and made recommendations, some of which called for the disciplining of some individuals, and they were acted upon,” said Mhaga.

“What was the provincial government supposed to do? Ignore a state organ that was tasked to investigate corruption and did so and made specific recommendations and referrals?”

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said Pino had never been a whistleblower. “This investigation was started when the Gauteng premier’s office requested the SIU to investigate these allegations on a secondment in May 2020. We reject the notion that we used her as a sacrificial lamb. We investigated, found wrongdoing on her part, sent the referral [including the evidence] to the employer and the employer disciplined her.”

I have a career that was destroyed by a botched and messed-up investigation of the SIU. On my referral letter, nowhere does the SIU say I am the one who reported these irregularities when I did

—  Thandy Pino

Pino said she was subjected to surveillance of her home for days last year, leading to her going into hiding for two weeks.

And this week, after her decision to speak out during an interview with talk radio 702, she said she once again lives in fear and has sent her three children to safety.

She said it would be unfortunate if her efforts to fight corruption were appreciated only after she was dead. She said the same had happened to Deokaran.

“Babita Deokaran was victimised but when she died politicians pretended to be concerned. She was victimised, but when she was shot Gauteng talks about how much of a good public servant she was,” said Pino.

While she was being interviewed by the Sunday Times, police in a patrolling vehicle rang the buzzer at her gate.

Pino was fired in July after a recommendation by the SIU, which reported that as the head of the Gauteng department of health’s supply chain she failed to ensure that procurement procedures were followed. She says the SIU merely copied the alarms she had raised.

Pino said she had objected to service providers not on the Gauteng government’s database being able to supply PPE.

She said she called department CFO Kabelo Lehloenya to ask that an order be given that the correct procedures be followed.

She said her objections were ignored and she was pushed out of the provincial “command centre” that was responsible for PPE procurement.

She was suspended in August 2020 and fired this year after a lengthy disciplinary process.

Pino said she red-flagged Royal Bhaca, the company owned by Madzikane II Thandisizwe Diko, the late husband of former presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko.