EDITORIAL | Whistleblowers are heroes, yet SA treats them like villains

Whistleblowing in SA is a deadly and costly business that comes with the risk of huge collateral damage.

This is not how it should be, but this is how it is.

The bodies of murdered whistleblowers, or those losing their income and careers, are a case in point.

Reports in Sunday Times Daily this week about threatening cellphone calls and messages to murdered Gauteng department of health whistleblower Babita Deokaran show just how deadly being an honest public servant in SA can be.

Government departmental systems and the Protected Disclosures Act, which in theory guarantee protection to whistleblowers, were not enough to save Deokaran.

Deokaran, like ANC councillor and unionist Moss Phakoe, stepped on toes when exposing multimillion-rand corruption.

Phakoe’s crime was to expose corruption around drought relief projects in the North West.

Deokaran exposed graft around the Gauteng health department’s procurement of more than R300m worth of PPE and hospital bed tenders to Tembisa hospital on Gauteng’s East Rand.

The provincial government’s integrity, ethics and corruption unit, located within premier David Makhura’s office, should have been alerted, and should have acted by notifying the police to conduct a threat assessment.

Both were speaking out for the greater good. The money that was being stolen was meant to go towards helping our country and its citizens.  

Deokaran reported the irregularities to her superiors and flagged the threatening messages and calls.

The provincial government’s integrity, ethics and corruption unit, located within premier David Makhura’s office, should have been alerted, and should have acted by notifying the police to conduct a threat assessment.

We don’t know if this happened because the premier’s office would not respond to questions on whether it received reports of the threats and, importantly, whether it acted on them.

Deokaran and Phakoe are not the only collateral damage from the fight against SA’s corruption epidemic.

The list of whistleblowers who have become targets for speaking out goes back years, as illustrated in a recent piece published on The Conversation.

In 2007, Dr Paul Theron alerted parliament and the then inspecting judge of prisons, Nathan Erasmus, to appalling conditions at Pollsmoor Prison’s healthcare facilities. Theron has experienced firsthand what it is like to take a stand against unjust systems. He was charged and then fired in 1999. Though the charges were ultimately dropped against him 2000, he was unable to return to his job at the prison.

In 2003, department of justice employee Mike Tshishonga, who blew the whistle on corruption within the Masters Office and levelled allegations against then justice minister Penuel Maduna, was suspended. He endured years of labour court battles before he could eventually clear his name.

Whistleblowing in SA should not be this hard.

We have laws that encourage and protect these brave people to stand up for the greater good.

We need to be calling for accountability and demanding why the price for doing good has become so high, especially for the families of murdered whistleblowers.

Whistleblowing in SA should be conducive to exposing corruption, which is crippling our country’s development, as was evident before the recently concluded state capture inquiry.

As citizens and businesses owners, along with those ruling the country, we must urgently and collectively rethink whistleblowing systems and ask ourselves how we can better protect witnesses – and ultimately our country.

It can no longer be the case that whistleblowers are murdered and fired without any repercussions.

Yes, Deokaran’s killers have been arrested, but the masterminds behind her slaying are still free.

Like those who murdered Phakoe outside his home, as long as they are not behind bars, they continue to get away with murder.

And as long as people continue to get away with murder, South Africans will not feel safe enough to speak out.