Protect Whistleblowers or Sacrifice the Country
South Africa has a long history of ignoring landmark reports.
The findings of the Zondo Commission is just one standout example. I could also list reports from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, the Marikana Commission of Enquiry, and the Unrest Report following the riots of July 2021, among many others.
Which is why I’m unwillingly sceptical that the report released in December 2025 by The Whistleblower House will make any real difference to the shocking state of affairs that inspired it. (Visit https://whistleblowerhouse.org/ to view the report)
It’s also, though, why I have to speak out. I cannot sit still and be quiet while the lives and livelihoods of good, honest, and brave South Africans continue to be threatened.
The report in question should have stopped this country in its tracks.
It revealed that, over the last three years, the Whistleblower House has had to step in and support 434 individuals after they came forward with allegations of fraud, corruption or other wrongdoings.
That number isn’t just a statistic or a data point on a graph. It’s 434 careers ended. 434 families who live with the daily fear of a car following them home. 434 people who, despite knowing the potential fallout from their actions, decided they could no longer live with the silence.
Yet how do we, as a country, honour these 434 people?
We sit back and watch them drown.
According to the report, 88% need urgent legal support. Why? Because the standard response to honesty in this country isn’t to say, “thank you for your courage,” but rather to raise a disciplinary charge.
This specialised form of corporate and state lawfare is designed to not only bankrupt and isolate, but also make darned sure anyone else watching learns one essential lesson:
It’s safer to shut up and take your cut.
The irony to me is that while the corruption that whistleblowers expose often runs into billions, The Whistleblower House – the only organisation actively trying to help – is running on fumes.
They have four staff members. Yes, four.
We are relying on a team that could fit in a small car to protect the last line of defence for our democracy.
It is a staggering, shameful indictment of where our priorities lie.
Five years after the cold-hearted assassination of Babita Deokaran, her family – and all good South Africans – are still waiting for justice. With every passing year of inaction, it’s increasingly obvious that her death wasn’t just a murder, it was a message.
And it’s one that’s reinforced every time another whistleblower is targeted.
Numerous reports show that over three quarters of South Africans believe that reporting corruption will lead to retaliation. It’s easy to dismiss that as cynicism, but it’s not. It’s simply – and tragically – an observation.
We’ve seen what’s happened to the 434. We’ve watched as the so-called “reforms” to the Whistleblower Protection Act that were promised in 2023 gather dust on a shelf, while the people the Act is supposed to protect are abandoned to their fate.
No wonder then, that 76% of our people are now too scared to tell the truth.
Over three decades after our landmark democratic elections, we no longer have a functioning democracy.
What we have instead is a hostage situation.
Yet still, we do nothing.
Actually, that’s not quite true. Because what we do, is treat whistleblowers like they’re the problem.
Why is it that we line the streets to welcome our sports teams back from successful tours, but look the other way when it comes to supporting the people who are trying to fix South Africa and really need our help?
These are the brave and selfless souls who risk everything to defend our country, but we treat them like troublemakers and brand them as “snitches.”
Their courage makes us uncomfortable because it calls out our apathy for the cowardice it really is.
The time has come to seriously question our values when we cheer for our victorious sports teams but don’t give a second’s thought to the 434 people putting themselves in danger to expose corruption. We idolise those who entertain us, and abandon the ones trying to save us.
When 88% of whistleblowers need legal help to fight the disciplinary charges they face as a result of their actions, we know the process is rigged. It’s a deliberate strategy to ensure they’re too exhausted and too broke to ever make it to a witness stand.
The Whistleblower House is pushing hard for specialised courts and real, enforceable protection in 2026.
This shouldn’t even be a debate – it should have been the government’s immediate response the day after Babita Deokaran was killed.
The fact that we are still “discussing” whether or not to protect the people who save us billions of rands is a sign of a deep, systemic rot in our leadership.
And yet, we cannot keep blaming “the system” because the system is us.
It’s the HR managers who sign off on sham disciplinary charges. It’s the lawyers who take millions in state funds to silence an honest clerk. And it’s the whistleblower’s neighbours who suddenly don’t know them when they lose their job.
This is a moral failure of the highest order. We have forced 434 people to fight our war for us, but we refuse to give them the weapons they need to win it.
The Whistleblower House shouldn’t be begging for donations, and it definitely shouldn’t be operating with a staff of just four.
It should be a national priority, funded and protected with the same intensity we bring to our most prized state assets. Because right now, those 434 people are our most prized assets. They are the only thing standing between us and South Africa’s total collapse into a kleptocracy.
In 2026, we have a choice. We can continue to ignore the efforts of the few, or we can finally lift our heads out of the sand and face the uncomfortable truth: saving our country means protecting our whistleblowers.
If we don’t, corruption will win, and there won’t be anything left to save.
Whistleblowers do what many are too scared to. If we leave them to die, then we deserve exactly what we’re going to get.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Sir Winston Churchill
If you want to take action to change the situation with regards to whistleblowers, consider donating to this great cause – https://whistleblowerhouse.org/donate/