Whistle-blowers need protection

It’s a common stereotype in Hollywood mafia movies: You become a “snitch” and tell the cops about corruption and you end up “swimming with the fishes” because you got dumped in the river wearing “concrete boots”.

The scenario of whistle-blowers getting murdered is more than just a screenplay in modern-day South Africa, though.

That was graphically proven on 23 August when Gauteng department of health official Babita Deokaran was shot dead by multiple gunmen as she drew up to her home in Mondeor, Johannesburg.

They had been monitoring her movements for days. The murder had all the hallmarks of a hit, possibly ordered by someone within the department who felt that Deokaran, a witness in various graft probes, would spill the beans.

And on 1 November, Athol Williams, a former director of Bain & Company, fled South Africa fearing for his life after implicating more than 39 individuals and companies at the Commission on Inquiry into State Capture.

While the murder of Deokaran and the departure of Williams maybe directly linked to what they know and the facts they began revealing, the events also help create an ominous climate of fear which will, undoubtedly, deter other whistle-blowers.

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This is because it is, clearly, not that difficult for the corrupt to divine exactly who their accusers are. Our systems of law and order and justice are leaky at the best of times and, no doubt, there are those within those structures who are only too willing to pass on information for money.

That is why, in addition to punishing killers and those who order these assassinations, the authorities need to lock up those within the system who blow the whistle on the whistle-blowers.

And we also need a proper witness protection programme. Otherwise, we may as well let our own mafia take over.