Chief Justice Zondo again calls for financial incentives for whistleblowers
Outgoing Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has been vocal in calling for whistleblower protection reform, specifically against the backdrop of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry, which he chaired, and the key role whistleblowers played in bringing to light the extent of the looting.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo at the national results operations centre on 2 June 2024. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has again called for financial incentives for whistleblowers.
Friday marked the third anniversary of Babita Deokaran's assassination.
A group of hitmen killed her outside her Mondeor home, south of Johannesburg. She was on her way back from dropping her daughter off at school.
Just weeks before, she had raised the alarm on hundreds of millions of rands worth of suspicious cash flows at Tembisa Hospital.
ALSO READ:
- Gauteng government commits to tackling corruption at provincial departments
- SIU looking into claims Tembisa Hospital corruption extends to other hospitals - Mothibi
- Babita Deokaran assassination 3 years on: 'We feel her loss every day' – Nephew
Deokaran's death shone a spotlight on the plights of whistleblowers and corruption investigators in South Africa and commanded a public uproar.
Zondo has been vocal in calling for whistleblower protection reform, specifically against the backdrop of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry, which he chaired, and the key role whistleblowers played in bringing to light the extent of the looting.
There is currently a process to amend the legislation around whistleblower protection underway and in a wide-ranging interview with Eyewitness News on the third anniversary of Deokaran's death, Zondo spoke to the importance of including financial incentives for whistleblowers.
“I've said on public platforms that some people might say: no people have a moral duty to report crime and so on and so on, and they shouldn't be paid for that, but the kind of levels of corruption that we have in this country don't give us that luxury.”