Did you know that as it stands, South Africa does not have a comprehensive Whistle-blower Protection Act? Is it therefore any wonder that whistle-blowers such as:

• Babita Doekaran (Gauteng Department of Health COVID-19 PPE),
• Martha Ngoye (PRASA),
• Mathapelo More (PIC Daybreak Farm), and
• many others

are either dead or are in hiding?

If, as a country, we are ever to rise from the ashes of corruption, those who come forward to expose it MUST have the full protection of the law and the state. It is for that reason that we demand that:

1. the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development adopts this Draft Protection and Support of Whistle-blowers Bill which has been drafted by South African civil society organisations to plug the gap that the South African government has failed to for years; and
2. that the Bill finally be introduced to Parliament, by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, to initiate the legislative process and table the Bill for enactment.

This Draft Protection and Support of Whistle-blowers Bill:

• provides whistle-blowers with employment law protection against any loss of job for blowing the whistle on improper conduct,
• criminalises the taking of detrimental action (as defined by the Bill) against a whistle-blower,
• voids any contract that discourages whistleblowing (including NDAs),
• extends the protection of the South African Human Rights Commission to a whistle-blower that submits a complaint of detrimental or potential detrimental action being taken against them,
• provides for the claiming of damages by the whistle-blower against the person or institution responsible for taking detrimental action against them,
• provides for a monetary reward to a whistle-blower who makes a disclosure of improper conduct that leads to the arrest and prosecution of an accused person, and
• provides for the establishment of a Whistle-blower Protection and Support Advisory Committee.

The President has been promising for years to provide more meaningful protection to whistle-blowers, which he did again at SONA 2023, without anything to show for it. Well now civil society has (again) done the work for government and all that is left is for government to push it forward!

Sign this petition to let the government know that South Africans will no longer stand for another whistle-blower to be gunned down. There is now a viable solution and we demand that it be implemented!

This petition has been done in collaboration with the Southern African Institute for Responsive and Accountable Governance (SAIRAG)