Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has called for the protection of whistleblowers. He was speaking at the second day of the commemoration of International Anti-Corruption Day at UNISA in Pretoria.
Zondo also made the recommendation in the State Capture report as the Chairperson of the Commission.
According to Corruption Watch, of the 33 000 whistleblower reports it received between 2012 and 2020, about 16 % related to corruption allegations at municipal level.
Zondo says the protection of whistleblowers will enhance efforts in fighting corruption.
“If we are to stand any chance of making, I guess, a serious dent on corruption, we need to ensure that whistleblowers and those people who stand for what is right in the face of serious attempts at corrupting them and getting them to take part in corruption and state capture, they need to be protected. We need to make sure that if as a result of their efforts, the country recovers money that has been taken away from the people of South Africa through corruption that they get some percentage of it,” Zondo explains.
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Robbing the poor
Zondo also lamented corruption arguing that it robs poor South Africans of decent living conditions.
Zondo zoomed in on state-owned entities including Prasa.
Prasa is a public entity wholly-owned by government and reports to the Minister of Transport, however, the state entity has been a victim of corruption.
In his State Capture Report, Zondo recommended the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the corruption at the SOE.
Zondo says South Africans suffered a reality where they were not afforded safe, reliable and essential transport due to “maladministration, incompetence and mismanagement.”
“Prasa is a very important state entity that was established in order to provide very essential transport to the people of South Africa, particularly poor people but Prasa has not been able to provide a safe and reliable transport service to poor people in our country. The Portfolio Committee on Transport in Parliament, which had a constitutional duty to oversee what was happening at Prasa, was not interested in asking very pertinent questions in order to turn around the tide of corruption at Prasa.”
