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, currently suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.
Her actions, along with a few other colleagues, have saved the commuter rail agency billions of rands.
She led the fight against the corrupt Swifambo and Siyangena contracts; helped stop PRASA from making a R1-billion ‘investment’ in VBS, months before its collapse; and prevented PRASA from making illegitimate payments to Siyaya, owned by the notorious Makhensa Mabunda, among other things.
Her testimony at the Zondo Commission revealed in detail the autocratic style of ex-PRASA CEO Lucky Montana, and the insidious influence that Roy Moodley had over the rail agency. In return, PRASA, under Chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane, fired her, illegally, and used the bottomless coffers afforded by the state to drive her from her position and sue her for R45-million.
In this article, Ngoye discusses state capture in the context of the murder of another whistleblower, Babita Deokaran.
Nobel Prize laureate, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, in the 2001 edition of the Global Corruption Report, said: “Without strong watchdog institutions, impunity becomes the very foundation upon which systems of corruption are built.”
Recently there has been a sliver of good...
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