Both public sector corruption and private sector financial shenanigans share some important commonalities: Both undermine trust and confidence in society, and serve to reduce investment, growth and job creation. Another commonality is that it is very likely that insiders always know what's going on.

An insider’s fear of speaking up is wholly justified, if only based on the tragic stories of the whistleblowers who have put their heads above the parapet: Careers have been derailed, livelihoods undermined, reputations have been attacked, and personal safety has been put at risk.

Having seen decades of investor losses and government decay, and as both responsible investors and members of civil society, Futuregrowth Asset Management and Old Mutual Investments jointly commissioned Just Share to review South Africa’s legal and regulatory framework around whistleblowing. In addition to a review of the landscape we asked Just Share to opine on the questions “What’s going wrong?” and “How can whistleblowers be empowered and protected?”

Just Share’s work shows that South Africa has a wide range of legislation and regulations designed to encourage whistleblowing. While that sounds good, the report highlights a few problems:

• First, without legal advice, a prospective whistleblower has almost no prospect of knowing what information they should gather, how to blow the whistle and to whom, and under what regulation or framework to do so. Legal advice should be provided in advance, to...

Read Full Story: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-05-12-empowering-whistleblowers-...