The Bribery Attempt That Backfired: Has Corruption Become Normalised?
The single greatest threat to corruption is a courageous human being.
I have learnt this from two decades as a forensic investigator, fighting corruption and fraud every day.
Yet tragically, South Africa’s recent past is peppered with far too many courageous people who have paid the ultimate price for their determination to expose the truth. The most recent of these happened just last week, with the cold-blooded assassination of Marius ‘Vlam’ van der Merwe, suspected to be due to the testimony he gave at the Madlanga Commission.
According to news reports, Van der Merwe, 41, told the commission that suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department acting chief, Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi, allegedly ordered him to dump the body of a suspect killed by EMPD officers in a bid to cover up a murder.
It may be this testimony that cost him his life. He was shot multiple times in front of his family outside their Brakpan home last Friday night.
It is yet another heartbreaking incident in a long line of similar tragedies in South Africa, and it’s why I continue to highlight the woeful lack of protection for whistleblowers in this country.
ActionSA MP Dereleen James clearly feels the same, saying that van der Merwe’s murder reinforced the need for both Parliament’s Ad-Hoc Committee and the Madlanga Commission to provide adequate protection for all those who expose corruption.
“I am sickened by the horrific assassination of a key Madlanga Commission witness,” she said. “We are confronting thugs who have no remorse, no regard for human life, and who are hell bent on rendering South Africa a mafia state.”
Adv. Glynnis Breytenbach MP, the DA Spokesperson on Justice and Constitutional Development, added her outrage in a statement on the party’s website.
“This kind of behaviour, where whistleblowers are gunned down for telling the truth, is something our country has never before experienced at this scale,” she said. “It is terrifying, it is brazen, and it is clearly intended to send a message of pure intimidation.”
She went on to say that it “underscores, once again, the urgency of strengthening whistleblower protection in South Africa [because] if people fear for their lives when they testify, our justice system collapses.”
I believe that this is exactly what these criminals are hoping to achieve with their terrifying war on integrity – and it’s why our woefully inadequate Whistleblower Protection Act must be overhauled and strengthened as a matter of urgency.
As uMkhonto weSizwe Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said, “[This is] a devastating indictment of the government’s persistent and catastrophic failure to safeguard witnesses, whistleblowers, and all individuals who come forward in defence of truth and justice.”
He added that the government had “learnt nothing and done nothing” from the 2021 murder of Thembisa Hospital whistleblower Babita Deokaran to protect those who testify against wrongdoing.
It seems incredible then, that in spite of this, South African whistleblowers remain dogged in the face of escalating danger.
Their heroic actions make it easy for us to forget that they are just ordinary people thrust into extraordinary, unwanted roles, risking everything to expose the truth and punish those who profit from the lie.
But without the support of robust government support, it will always be a hard, lonely, and hugely dangerous fight.
It would surely be easier and safer to simply turn a blind eye and do nothing. Which is, of course, what the bad guys are hoping for – even going so far as to offer financial incentives for doing so.
The recent attempt by individuals from the Independent Development Trust (IDT) to bribe Daily Maverick investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh to kill his corruption investigation is a case in point.
In August this year, the IDT’s recently suspended CEO, Tebogo Malaka, and spokesperson, Phasha Makgolane, met with Myburgh at a Stellenbosch wine farm. They offered him R60 000 in an apparent attempt to cover up his ongoing investigation into an IDT contract and one of Malaka’s upmarket properties.
He turned down their offer, and entire transaction was caught on camera. Yet three months later, what has happened?
All too predictably, the answer is a resounding nothing.
As the Daily Maverick (DM) writes, “Attempted bribery of a journalist to conceal official misconduct is a serious crime that strikes at the heart of public accountability and freedom of the press.”
But despite video footage and an audio recording of the attempted bribe, no arrests have been made. There have been no disciplinary actions and no further updates from the IDT.
“The silence is as loud as the evidence is clear,” says the DM. “The IDT board promised an internal review. The minister promised accountability. The SAPS promised an investigation.
“But this promise exists in a broader context – one that makes inaction all the more dangerous.
“At the same time that this police case languishes, the South African Police Service faces its own reckoning. A parliamentary inquiry into corruption within SAPS is uncovering disturbing patterns of internal bribery, procurement fraud and political interference. A separate commission of inquiry running concurrently continues to lift the lid off alleged links between senior police and government officials and criminal networks.
“So when the very agency tasked with investigating corruption stands accused of corruption, how confident can the public be that justice will be served swiftly or at all?”
That is the million dollar question, and it’s why so many South Africans are losing faith in the system.
Why should we continue to risk our livelihoods and lives when even the most damning evidence is apparently not enough to secure any kind of action against the perpetrators?
It’s a valid question, and the only answer I have is, “If we don’t, who will?”
The forensic community has always stood shoulder to shoulder with other whistleblowers because we know that doing the right thing may not be easy or safe, but it is absolutely critical.
We have to keep trying, keep resisting, and keep pushing back. But we can’t keep doing it alone.
We need the government to give us the support it’s been promising for years. How many more people have to die before reforms to our Whistleblower Protection Act are prioritised by government?
“If corruption goes unpunished, it becomes normalised,” says the Daily Maverick. “South Africa has become a country of endless inquiries, boundless evidence, and almost no consequences.
“This is how democracies die – not with a coup, but with the quiet acceptance that impunity is the norm.”
Action must follow exposure.
Whistleblowers must be protected.
We must kill corruption before corruption kills us.