The Southern African Institute for Responsive and Accountable Governance (SAIRAG) has called for more political and societal will to protect whistleblowers.
The organisation’s chairperson Tseliso Thipanyane says the intimidation and victimisation that whistleblowers face, discourages them from exposing corruption.
SAIRAG and other organisations are holding a candlelight vigil on Tuesday evening in remembrance of Babita Deokaran.
The chief director of financial accounting in the Gauteng Department of Health was gunned down outside her home a year ago, while she was a key witness in an investigation into alleged PPE corruption at the Department during COVID-19.
Thipanyane explains how a draft bill, called the Protection and Support of Whistleblowers Act of 2022, aims to fill the gaps in the current Protected Disclosures Act for whistleblowers.
“We have an Act that prohibits the victimisation of whistleblowers. Unfortunately, over the past 22 years since the Act has been passed, we are experiencing a lot of victimisation for whistleblowers, some of whom get killed like Babita. Others lose their jobs and others are harassed or intimidated and as a result not many people come forward in exposing wrongdoing and corruption in our country,” says Thipanyane.
Reporting Taliesha Naidoo and Hoosen Ebrahim.
Is South Africa doing enough to protect whistleblowers?
