Babita Deokaran.
South Africa’s whistle-blowers are still being forced to make a life-or-death decision when they expose corruption, with watchdogs warning that the people who allegedly order attacks can remain beyond the reach of the law even after the alleged hitmen are arrested.
The issue has come into sharp focus in cases where alleged hitmen have been arrested and convicted, but those suspected of ordering or financing the attacks remain unidentified or unprosecuted.
Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) Southern Africa regional director Roshnee Narrandes said the country’s current whistle-blower protection laws do not adequately protect people whose disclosures put their lives at risk.
“There is no protection for whistleblowers in the current PDA,” Narrandes said.
She said the proposed Protected Disclosures Bill had identified witness protection as a possible solution, but warned that people were being assassinated simply for doing their jobs.
The failure to identify those behind attacks, she said, only emboldened them.
Narrandes said testimony emerging from the Madlanga Commission had raised concerns about people allegedly giving orders from the highest levels of society, with some having penetrated the security and justice sectors.
She added that the consequences were clear for anyone considering exposing corruption.
“Yes, it definitely does, as you have to make a life-or-death decision when reporting corruption. You are basically taking your life in your hands when reporting issues of public interest.”
Narrandes said whistle-blowers facing credible threats should be placed immediately in witness protection, along with their families, while an investigation is launched.
Corruption Watch spokesperson Janine Erasmus said the recent alleged plot against a senior Justice Department official highlighted both the danger whistle-blowers face and the importance of acting quickly when threats are reported.
A whistle-blower alerted Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi to an alleged plan to kill a senior official who had refused to sign questionable contracts. Kubayi contacted law enforcement, and the official and her family were placed under protection.
Erasmus described the case as “a rare example of how the system should work”.
But she said the bigger concern remained cases where the alleged gunmen were arrested while those who may have ordered or financed the attacks remained free.
“This case plays out against a backdrop of alleged masterminds still walking free, and the hitmen taking the fall,” Erasmus said.
She said these investigations were difficult because there could be several people between the person who pays for an attack and the person who carries it out.
Five years after Babita Deokaran was gunned down, her murder continues to expose the gap between bringing alleged hitmen to justice and finding those who sent them.
Six men were arrested and later sentenced for her murder after she was gunned down outside her Johannesburg home in August 2021. The alleged mastermind or masterminds behind the killing have not been brought before court.
Speaking at a memorial service in Johannesburg marking five years since Deokaran's murder, Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia said the search for those behind the killing was continuing.
Cachalia said he had met with the Hawks and had been assured that the investigation remained active.
He also linked the failure to reach those behind corruption to the power and influence they allegedly hold.
“I think part of the reason why we don't have justice today is that those people are in positions of power. They're in positions to be able to protect themselves,” Cachalia said.
Deokaran’s murder is not the only case where the alleged gunmen have been brought before court while questions remain over who sent them. Other cases include:
Despite arrests in some of these cases, the question of who allegedly ordered the killings remains.
SAPS national spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe declined to discuss the individual investigations.
“The majority of these investigations are sensitive, and as such we cannot comment on any questions posed to us,” Mathe said.
The NPA, however, stressed that the investigations themselves are the responsibility of the police, while prosecutors assess the evidence needed to take a case to court.
National spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the NPA would not prosecute a case unless it believed there was enough evidence to secure a successful prosecution.
“We will not take a matter to court if we are not happy that it will have a successful prosecution,” Kganyago said.
He said prosecutors and investigators also work together from the beginning through prosecutor-guided investigations, with prosecutors identifying gaps that investigators need to address.
“That is why you see prosecutions there, because we work together from the word go.”
The lack of protection has also put pressure on the government to strengthen the law.
The Justice Department’s proposed Protected Disclosures Bill was published for public comment in April. The Bill seeks to strengthen protection for whistle-blowers and address gaps in the current law, including providing for physical protection in certain circumstances.
Public submissions closed on May 14. The latest Justice Department legislative update does not indicate that the Bill has yet been approved by Cabinet or passed by Parliament.
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