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Every year on 23 June, designated as World Whistle-blower Day (WWBD), Corruption Watch (CW) joins the world in honouring the brave patriots who have risked their lives and their livelihoods in pursuit of the truth. Many of them have lost their lives for that cause. Because CW’s founding operational model was built on the strategic use of the information whistle-blowers brought to us, we are deeply indebted to those who overcame fear and hesitation to tell us their stories.
We also reflect on what we, as a society and as individuals, are doing to make the environment for blowing the whistle more enabling and encouraging.
It’s tempting to say we ‘celebrate’ blowing the whistle, but in today’s world whistle-blowing is no cause for celebration – especially not for those who report and expose corruption in an increasingly hostile space. To all those who turned to CW, the Public Protector, other civil society organisations such as Whistleblower House or the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, law enforcement authorities, or public and private sector anti-corruption hotlines, among others – we as an organisation, and we as a nation, thank you and applaud you.
Fighting corruption with courage
The names of whistle-blowers are as known to many of us as are the names of our own friends and acquaintances. Babita Deokaran. Themba Maseko. Cynthia Stimpel. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Athol Williams, Mosilo Mothepu, Martha Ngoye, Bianca Goodson, Moss Phakoe, and many more. Some of them have paid the ultimate price for their country duty. All of them have had their lives turned upside down.
“But a whistle-blower is not only someone who reveals a huge corruption scandal or financial fraud,” said Transparency International, CW’s parent organisation. “They can be a nurse, a factory worker, a journalist, or a civil servant. They report wrongdoing in the course of their work or dealings with an organisation. Whatever the scale.”
This means that any of us can be a whistle-blower, because most whistle-blowers never make the news.
“We are convinced that without whistle-blowers, the fight against corruption will continue forever,” said CW’s chairperson Themba Maseko, himself a high-profile whistle-blower and author of For My Country: Why I Blew the Whistle on Zuma and the Guptas. Maseko added that growing up as an activist, he admired and looked up to freedom fighters, especially those in exile – but after South Africa’s democracy arrived and he saw that many of these self-same heroes were busily looting the public purse, his disappointment drove him to pursue anti-corruption activities even more vigorously.
Far-reaching effects
Often, it is not just the whistle-blower who is affected. Many families are seriously and profoundly affected by the stresses of exposing corruption.
“Many of the revelations that expose state capture, corruption, and maladministration would never have come to light without our whistle-blowers, who were prepared to speak up often at tremendous personal cost,” said Ethics Institute CEO Liezl Groenewald in a webinar held on 23 June. “Behind every whistle-blower stands a family, a spouse who carries the burden. Behind every whistle-blower there are children who experience uncertainty and fear, parents who worry, friends who watch helplessly entire households whose lives are disrupted by a decision that was motivated not by self-interest but by conscience.”
These are the visible victims of corruption, and these are the people we must remember on World Whistle-blower Day, added Groenewald, “because whistle-blowing is not merely just an individual act, it is often a family experience, and this reality is precisely why South Africa’s ongoing efforts to strengthen whistle-blower protection are so important.”
An emotional Bianca Goodson recounted her experiences as a whistle-blower during the Gupta era. Goodson testified before the Zondo commission on her experience as the CEO of Trillian Management Consultancy, which was owned by politically-connected Salim Essa, a close Gupta associate. She resigned from Trillion in April 2016 but continued to suffer consequences for years afterwards.
“In the beginning, when there was a lot of uncertainty, I lost the support that I needed, and in hindsight, I understand why,” she said, adding that people were afraid to associate with her because of the danger that attends many high-profile whistle-blowers. “People, I think, also underestimate the fact that on any given day, you still just have to get up, do the school run, make dinner, and put food in the table, so you’re carrying all this stuff daily for years, and life has to still go on. Life doesn’t stop.”
Of all the consequences that befell her, said Goodson, the fact that her daughter was seriously impacted is what she most regrets.
Protection on paper
In South Africa, the main legal instrument for whistle-blower protection is the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA), now undergoing amendments as the Protected Disclosures Bill to address several flaws and gaps in the legislation which have contributed to the current precarious and unsafe environment for whistle-blowers. These gaps include the absence of clear procedures for handling disclosures, insufficient protection for whistle-blowers, limited support mechanisms for disclosures, and a lack of coordinated systems to ensure that disclosures are effectively received and acted upon, among others.
Guided by the recommendations from the Zondo commission and the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, the bill aims to close gaps in the PDA by enhancing protection against retaliation, improving support, and extending protection to individuals beyond traditional employment relationships.
CW is one of a number of organisations that contributed to the bill’s development, through a submission made in 2023 on a Department of Justice discussion paper titled Proposed Reforms for Whistleblower Protection Regime in South Africa. We submitted that any changes to the whistle-blower protection legislative regime must acknowledge whistle-blowers as the focal point, and the objective to ensure their broadest possible protection should be a foundational principle of the legislation and the starting point for the drafting of any definitions.
The bill recently went through a round of public comments and suggestions and once these are incorporated, the bill will go to Cabinet for approval and then begin the journey through Parliament before being signed into law.
“But legislation alone will never be enough,” said Groenewald. “Law cannot restore broken relationships, remove the trauma experienced by families, replace years of lost income, or undo psychological scars caused by whistle-blowing. Ultimately, whistle-blower protection is not just a legal issue, it’s a human issue, it’s an ethical issue, and it’s a societal issue.”
