WATCHDOG: Broad front of anti-graft organisations set to strengthen the hand of those blowing whistle against wrongdoing…

By  Kwazi Dlamini & WSAM Reporters

Newly established French-based civil society organisation Climate Whistleblowers (CW) is joining forces with several other watchdog entities – including in South Africa – to expose environmental transgressions by governments as well as giant oil and mining companies.

Launched on June 5 (World Environment Day), the organisation also aims to throw its weight behind protecting those who speak out against perpetrators who worsen the climate crisis, including to bring to light the plight of whistleblowers who risk danger to do the right thing.

South Africa’s graft watchdog, Corruption Watch, has welcomed the development, saying such an organisation could also help a country like South Africa, which are experiencing growing levels of violence around environmental issues in the mining sector, for instance.

Already, communities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Northern Cape had – for years – been fending off mining companies bent on exploiting their land and, in some cases, causing huge environmental problems.

“Whistle-blowers can be crucial for the climate movement,” said CW in a statement. “They bring precise and substantial evidence and poignant testimonies on attacks on the environment. They can not only deliver impact by themselves but also spark public debate, fuel legal cases, and inspire others to act.”

Many such whistleblowers have the potential to become climate watchdogs, added the organisation, “from a banker denouncing a fossil financing project to a government scientist who is being silenced, from an employee denouncing greenwashing practices to an engineer revealing mass deforestation”.

Currently a hot topic in South Africa, the issue of protection of whistleblowers gained momentum especially after the death of Babita Deokaran, a high-ranking official with the Department of Health and whistleblower who was gunned down near her home in Mondeor, Johannesburg, two years ago. This was after she had flagged suspicious payments totalling more than R500 million at Tembisa Hospital in Ekurhuleni.

A fortnight ago, six suspects who were arrested and later confessed in the High Court in Johannesburg, to having murdered Deokaran, were given jail sentences of between six and 22 years. Further investigations are underway afterPresident Cyril Ramaphosa last Friday issued a proclamation giving the Special Investigating Unit to probe companies and certain officials who profited from the fraudulent transactions that cost the hospital totalling nearly R1 billion, within the Gauteng Department of Health.

Meanwhile organisations like Corruption Watch, the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa, and others have been vocal about governments doing more to protect those who speak out.

“Whistle-blower protection can only succeed when civil society remains actively engaged and holds authorities accountable for their actions,” said the CW’s chairperson Anna Myers. “Our mission is to provide unwavering support and protection to climate whistle-blowers, who bravely speak up on behalf of all of us and the well-being of the planet.”

CW’s specific actions regarding whistle-blower protection include helping individuals to safely blow the whistle by providing secure communication; and helping climate whistle-blowers to assess the risks they would take and how to mitigate them. Also, investigating the information they are willing to disclose and ensuring their whistle-blowing is impactful.

‘Mining a big culprit’

Corruption Watch attorney Nkululeko Conco, who works with mining communities across the country, says formation of strategic partnerships with organisations like CW and others based in mining-affected communities will help amplify the voices of whistle-blowers in this sector.

“The importance of an organisation such as Climate Whistleblowers cannot be overstated. A great deal of our commercial activity, not to mention the extractives industry, has an impact on the environment and the climate,” he says.

“As we exploit natural resources for transition minerals, we are bound to witness a scramble for minerals coupled with lack of consultation and silencing of dissenting voices,” Conco added.

The Eastern Cape community of Xolobeni has been in and out of court, fighting against an Australian mining company looking to extend its mining activities along the province’s Wild Coast.

In the midst of its legal battles, the community has lost key community leaders who led the fight against the mining company. The murder in March 2016 of Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Radebe, who was shot in front of his teenage son at his home in Mbizana, Eastern Cape, shocked the country. The attack was allegedly committed by two men impersonating police officers. Seven years on, there is still no justice, and nobody has been brought to book.

In KwaZulu-Natal, environmental activist Fikile Ntshangase, who vociferously opposed an existing open coal mine in the area, was similarly gunned down in her home in the community of Somkhele, in October 2020. – Sourced from Corruption Watch

STORIES OF TWO WHISTLEBLOWERS

CONSCIENTIOUS: They are all unique, but paint a picture of struggle and adversity for people seeking to do the right thing in the public interest…

 By WSAM Reporter

(Dr Paul Theron

His story shows how simple acts taken by public sector employees to try and improve the lives of citizens they serve, can be met with opposition by employers.

Theron was an employee of the Department of Health, delivering healthcare services within Pollsmoor Prison in the Western Cape. He was suspended in 2007 after he disclosed the poor state of the healthcare system in the facility to Parliament and the Inspecting Judge for Prisons. The then Minister of Correctional Services then sued him for defamation, although those charges were eventually dropped.

Open Democracy Advice Centre assisted Theron in his quest for reinstatement, though he had struggled for some time to find any organisation that would be able to help him take on his case. Even after he obtained a court order allowing him to return to his post, guards at the prison physically blocked his attempts to re-enter the premises.

A resulting parliamentary committee confirmed his complaints, but even after a long and expensive battle in the Labour Court he was never reinstated at his post at Pollsmoor. He remains a strong promoter of the reform of prison conditions in South Africa, but has been deprived of continuing his dedicated services to the Pollsmoor he had treated so well.

Moses Phakwe (Deceased)

(story as told by son Tlholo Phakwe)

It is a disturbing reality that the physical safety of whistleblowers is at risk in South Africa. Tlholo Phakwe recounts the story of his father, who was assassinated because of his attempts to blow the whistle.

On March 14 2009 Moss Phakwe, a whistleblower, was assassinated. Phakwe’s body was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car in his driveway with two bullet wounds.

Phakwe (junior) provides a brave, and detailed (filed in a statement), account of the impact his assassination had on the family.

Phakwe (senior) was an ANC municipal councillor, who had attempted to expose corruption in the municipality. He and a colleague Alfred Motsi raised their concerns through a variety of political channels within the ANC in the belief action would eventually be taken. They delivered evidence to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and to the Office of the President then run by Kgalema Motlanthe.

Another meeting took place with the late Minister Sicelo Shiceka in Rustenburg, attended by Phakwe, Motsi and Wolmarans on March 12, 2009. Phakwe had spoken last and handed his dossier to Shiceka.

Before he did so, he had looked at Wolmarans and said: “Hate me, but don’t hurt me.”

Two days later, early in the evening of March 13 2009 Phakwe’s body was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car with two bullet wounds.

Matthew Wolmarans and his former bodyguard, Enoch Matshaba, were arrested, charged and sentenced with his murder. The dossier Phakwe (senior) had consolidated had gone missing, but was found in the home of former Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli. – Source Open Democracy Advice Centre (Heroes Under Fire Report)