Investigative journalist Jeff Wicks challenges Rhodes University students to keep asking the questions that power fears

By Siqhamo Jama

 

On an August morning in Johannesburg in 2021, Gauteng health official Babita Deokaran was gunned down outside her home after asking questions about suspicious hospital procurement payments. Her questions still echo across South Africa’s democracy nearly five years later. They also served as the starting point for investigative journalist Jeff Wicks’s keynote address, which he delivered at the annual Academic Assembly of the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies (JMS).

Speaking to students preparing to enter the profession, Wicks traced the realities behind what he described as a “shadow state”, a network of criminal interests operating inside public systems and sustained by silence. His message was clear. Journalism remains one of the country’s most important democratic safeguards.

The annual Academic Assembly brings together staff, students and alumni to reflect on the responsibilities that accompany the craft of journalism. This year’s address placed those responsibilities into sharp focus.

The inheritance still being written

The assembly opened with a formal academic procession led by Dean of Humanities Professor Siphokazi Magadla, who reflected on the unfinished nature of democratic citizenship and intellectual responsibility.

“What is often overlooked is that the most important inheritance may lie not in what is passed on, but in what is left undone, what is yet to be struggled for,” she said, echoing remarks by Master of Ceremonies and JMS lecturer, Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki.

Her reflection framed the evening as more than a ceremonial gathering. It positioned journalism education as part of a larger national project of accountability and public service.

David and Goliath: Journalism up against the shadow state

Wicks’s lecture examined how meticulous investigative reporting conducted by his team helped expose corruption linked to procurement networks around Tembisa Hospital. He described how Deokaran’s persistence revealed patterns that extended beyond a single institution.

In what he termed a ‘shadow state’, public systems are redirected away from their intended purpose and towards organised extraction. For journalists, following these trails is rarely safe work.

Yet his message to students was one of responsibility rather than fear.

“You are not just producing news inserts or stories,” he told them. “You are creating history.”

He urged aspiring reporters to understand their future work as part of democracy’s long-term archive of evidence and accountability.

“You are building the documentary foundation for democracy’s defence of itself.”

The lecture resonated strongly with Rhodes University’s long-standing commitment to producing graduates who are critical, engaged citizens capable of contributing to a more just and accountable society through knowledge and public service.

A question that cannot be silenced

The keynote address closed with a moment that drew laughter from the audience. Wicks shared that his own application to study journalism at Rhodes University had been unsuccessful in 2005.

The story carried a deeper message. Paths into journalism are rarely predictable, but persistence matters.

He returned to the question that ultimately cost Babita Deokaran her life. Criminal networks, he said, may silence individuals, but they cannot silence questions.

“As long as journalists keep asking them,” he told students, “accountability remains possible.”

For many in the room, that reminder captured the purpose of the Academic Assembly itself. At Rhodes University, journalism education is not only about reporting on events. It is about preparing graduates to defend the public record and strengthen democracy by upholding citizens’ right to know - no matter the cost.

 

In the video below, Jeff Wicks sits down with veteran broadcaster Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki for the pilot episode of Let's Talk, Rhodes University's School of Journalism & Media Studies' current affairs Television Show. In it, they discuss his book The Shadow State, the assassination of Babita Deokaran, the Tembisa Hospital corruption network, the R2.3 billion stolen from health funds, the Madlanga Commission, the Ekurhuleni scandal, the mansion raid of Morgan Maumela, Cat Matlala, Lt. General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, Fannie Masemola, whistleblower protection in South Africa, and the ethics and personal cost of investigative journalism. He also gives young aspiring journalists advice on pursuing a career in crime and investigative journalism.