The protection of whistleblowers has come under the spotlight in recent years and was brought into sharp focus by the assassination of Gauteng Health Manager Babita Deokoran in 2021.

The civil society organisation, Whistleblower House, says that it is happy with the steps taken by the justice department in publishing recommendations on reforming the whistleblowing legislative regime.

One of South Africa’s bravest whistleblowers, Cynthia Stimpel, speaks to BizNews about the huge personal sacrifices being made by the country’s whistleblowers; the terrible losses some have suffered – and the extreme vilification that is used to discredit those who dare speak truth to power.

Journalists Jeff Wicks and Mandy Wiener said that South Africa could do more to protect whistleblowers who expose corruption at public and private entities.

Martha Ngoye is a whistleblower for the vast corruption at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa). She is Prasa's group executive for legal. On Thursday she delivered an address at the launch of New South Institute, of which she is a board member. Here is an edited version of her address.

Murray and his son's killings will have a chilling effect on all those who seek to pursue criminals and hold them to account in the way that he did. That is precisely the impact that these extraction networks and criminal syndicates seek to achieve.

‘Like many who are today called whistle-blowers, we never set out to become whistle-blowers… We were just normal human beings who knew right from wrong, regular employees who did their job with the utmost care” – Mzukisi Makatse and Sello Qhina

‘My comrades called me naive’: Themba Maseko refused to participate in the Gupta family’s attempts to capture the state’s advertising budget.

Martha Ngoye has been the central figure at the rail agency in its fight against corruption, helping Prasa win court victories against service providers Swifambo, Siyangena and Siyaya.

In the recent case of Lawson vs FMR LLC, the Supreme Court ruled that employees of private companies engaged by public companies are covered by the whistle blower protections of Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”).