Proposed law may breathe life into whistleblower protection plans
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An opposition party in South Africa has introduced a private member’s bill that, if passed, would significantly improve protections for whistleblowers and incentivise public interest disclosures.
The bill proposes amending the Public Procurement Act to create a secure and anonymous disclosure mechanism. It provides for prison sentences of up to 20 years for intimidation of whistleblowers, a reward system of up to a third of funds recovered in corruption cases, and allows for private prosecutions where the National Prosecuting Authority declines to act.
The party that introduced the bill, ActionSA, said it had decided to focus on public procurement, which accounts for over R1 trillion (US$60 billion) a year in government expenditure, to “strike corruption where it hurts most”.
South Africa has been rocked by a series of high-profile assassinations of whistleblowers. They include Marius van der Merwe, who was gunned down in December after testifying about police corruption at an official inquiry, and several past winners of the annual Blueprint Whistleblowing Prize – namely Babita Deokaran, Marumo Eric Phenya and Pamela Mabini.
Several other South African whistleblowers honoured with Blueprint prizes in the past have faced death threats, assassination attempts, and were placed under physical surveillance. This has left them feeling vulnerable and abandoned, living in fear of their lives, wondering if they will be next.
New legislation to improve whistleblower protection has been under discussion since it was recommended by the State Capture Commission in 2022, but has yet to be passed. As a result, most South African whistleblowers feel government pronouncements about whistleblower protections are little more than lip service, and are not back up by concrete action.
Private members’ bills are very rarely signed into law in South Africa. As ActionSA only has tiny fraction of the national vote, it is unlikely this bill will be passed unless it receives substantial support from larger parties. However, the party’s bold proposal could focus public debate and thereby invigorate a moribund process of revamping and beefing up whistleblower protection law in a country where those who make disclosures in the public interest so often pay the ultimate price.
