On 23 August 2021, Babita Deokaran – a hardworking single mother and chief accountant at the Gauteng Department of Health – was shot down outside her home. The izinkabi paid to kill her were caught, but the question remained: Who ordered her murder, and why?

Investigative journalist Jeff Wicks set out to find the answer. This quest would profoundly change – even endanger – his life, as he bravely followed the leads Babita had left behind.

Leads that the Hawks, who were officially investigating her assassination, had failed to act on. In The Shadow State Wicks uncovers an audacious web of crooked officials, ANC politicians, and extraction syndicates – including that of the notorious ‘Cat’ Matlala – siphoning away billions meant for patients in Gauteng’s public hospitals.

An explosive, fast-paced investigation into greed and state capture, this book is also a moving tribute to the courage of one woman who, when confronted by powerful wrongdoers, refused to keep quiet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Wicks works for News24’s investigations team in Johannesburg. He won the Nat Nakasa Award for courageous journalism and two Taco Kuiper Awards for Investigative Journalism. His work on the murder of Babita Deokaran was shortlisted for the Global Shining Light Award, recognising watchdog journalism in developing countries done under threat.

'The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran had to die' is published by Tafelberg, an imprint of NB Publishers