Whistleblower Bill seeks to protect those who expose corruption

Source: Whistleblower Bill seeks to protect those who expose corruption —** CITEZW**

The proposed Whistleblowers and Witness Protection Bill, 2026, seeks to create a legal framework to protect people who report corruption amid concerns that fear of retaliation has discouraged citizens from coming forward.

Parliament has concluded nationwide public consultations on the Bill, which seeks to promote integrity and accountability in the public and private sectors while protecting whistleblowers and witnesses.

Speaking during This Morning on Asakhe, a daily current affairs programme hosted by CITEZW on X, Transparency International Zimbabwe head of programmes Nqobani Tshabangu said fear and a lack of confidence had made it difficult for people to report wrongdoing.

Tshabangu said the problem affected people who witnessed wrongdoing in their workplaces and daily lives, as well as those who encountered cases of grand corruption.

“I think one of the challenges that we have been having in dealing with corruption broadly has been that, firstly, people are not confident enough or people fear reporting any wrongdoing that they see, either in their workspace or in their day-to-day lives, and also where there are issues of grand corruption,” Tshabangu said.

He said the Bill sought to provide legal protection to people who report corruption and prevent them from facing retaliation.

“So this bill tries to create a legal framework that enables, that protects people that whistleblow against corruption. And apart from that, it also ensures that those that report, they do not face any harm, any retribution. And I think it actually spells out what kind of protection the state can give in the event that you whistleblow,” Tshabangu said.

Tshabangu said the Bill had two major objectives, one of which was to promote integrity and accountability in the public and private sectors.

“The bill has got two major objectives. The first one is to promote integrity and accountability in both the public and private sector,” Tshabangu said.

He said the Bill’s focus on the private sector was a positive development because discussions around corruption had largely centred on the public sector.

“So the aspect of the private sector is actually clearly space-dated in the bill, which is a very positive aspect, because in most cases, if you realise , we have been so much concerned with corruption in the public sector, but there hasn’t been any concerted effort to speak about or to deal with corruption in the private sector,” Tshabangu said.

Tshabangu said the Bill also sought to protect whistleblowers and witnesses from suffering harm because of their participation in reporting or testifying against corruption.

“The bill also says it seeks to protect whistleblowers and witnesses from being subjected to any form of detriment on account of their participation as a whistleblower or a witness,” Tshabangu said.

He said some people were reluctant to testify against corruption they had witnessed.

“So I indicated earlier that the first part is, most people have not been confident or comfortable in whistleblowing cases of corruption. And also, secondly, some people have also not been willing to testify against any corrupt acts that they actually see,” Tshabangu said.

He said witnesses could also be compensated if they suffered losses because of their involvement in corruption cases.

“You can be compensated in the event that you lose something just because you are a witness against corruption. So I think for the past 10 or so years, this has been one of the issues that we have seen in the anti-corruption discourse, that people have been seeing corruption, but they have not been reporting it,” Tshabangu said.

Tshabangu said some cases taken up by anti-corruption institutions had failed because of insufficient evidence.

He said the lack of evidence had contributed to concerns about corruption cases failing to progress.

“Secondly, some of the cases that maybe ZACC takes up, they also fell through because of lack of sufficient evidence. Yes, people have been talking about the catch and release. You have an exciting case, an interesting case, but there’s no sufficient evidence,” Tshabangu said.

He said some corruption cases had also failed because witnesses withdrew or became unwilling to continue testifying.

“The third issue is that we have seen that most of the corruption cases have not gone through the courts because witnesses, in some instances, withdraw or they just are no longer interested in testifying because of the taintless process,” Tshabangu said.

Tshabangu said witnesses could face costs when testifying against particular crimes, which could affect the progress of cases.

“In some instances, the witnesses pay a cost when they are trying to testify against a particular crime. I think this has been one of the issues where you will see some of the cases just being thrown out and the witnesses no longer available and so forth,” Tshabangu said.

He said whistleblowers played an important role in exposing fraud in the private sector because people with knowledge of corrupt dealings often did not know how to come forward.

Tshabangu said this made it difficult to obtain sufficient evidence in some cases.

“If you realise most of the corruption that occurs, let’s say in the private sector, we rarely hear or see any reports of fraud, but the evidence is not sufficient because people that know the dealings of certain issues or dealings within the metrics of corruption, they don’t even know how to come forward,” Tshabangu said.

He referred to research which he said showed the importance of whistleblowers in exposing fraud.

“I think the latest statistics or research indicates that 43% of cases of fraud in the private sector emerge because of whistleblowers, some people feel they have a duty to actually talk about any fraud that is occurring,” Tshabangu said.

He said the inclusion of employers meant whistleblowing mechanisms would also be embedded in the private sector.

“So I want to speak about the last part about the employer. It moves from just us reporting in the public sector, but it embeds the whistleblowing mechanisms within the private sector. So meaning employers should be mandated to create a whistleblower protection mechanism,” Tshabangu said.

He said employees who reported corruption within companies should be protected.

“If one whistleblower reported an act of corruption within a company, they should be protected. And it actually goes further in terms of bringing that confidence to those that whistleblow,” Tshabangu said.

However, Kurish Ngwato said the effectiveness of the Bill would depend on the institutions responsible for implementing it.

“Bills alone don’t protect anyone. Institutions that support democracy and are tasked with execution of those bills. A bill policy needs an institution that will protect its intentions,” Ngwato said.

A participant, Senyoro, questioned whether there would be enough resources to implement the proposed witness protection measures.

“Borrowing from what I heard from the last presentation, it’s like it’s always difficult to enforce the laws in Zimbabwe. But that is now a broken record. My question is on resources,” Senyoro said.

Senyoro asked whether the country was adequately resourced to protect witnesses under the proposed law.

“Are we resourced enough to protect witnesses? And what is there in the bill, in the projected act, when it’s an act of parliament, how is it going to work in terms of resources,” Senyoro said.

He also questioned whether Zimbabwe was ready to enforce the law and protect citizens who sought to help curb crime.

“Are we ready to enforce it in terms of protecting the citizens in their endeavours to curb crime in Zimbabwe,” said Senyoro.

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