South Africa’s fight against corruption depends on keeping a simple promise: those who expose wrongdoing will be protected by the law.
The long legal battle of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) whistleblowers Martha Ngoye and Tiro Holele has become a test of whether the state is doing that.
More than a decade has passed since investigative reporting placed Prasa at the centre of one of South Africa’s largest procurement scandals — the so-called “tall trains” saga.
When Ngoye and Holele testified before the Zondo Commission into state capture, their evidence drew widespread attention. See Zondo: Prasa and SAA Whistleblowers needed protection.
In a toxic culture of patronage networks and corrupt practices, they modelled a counterculture of tonic integrity and have spent almost 10 years defending a principle many South Africans claim to support but few are forced to live: refusing to sign off on corruption.
As senior Prasa executives, they resisted unlawful decisions and exposed irregular contracts, including the notorious Swifambo and Siyangena deals. Ngoye helped block a proposed R1 billion investment in VBS Mutual Bank months before its collapse and prevented questionable payments to politically connected individuals.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and Zondo Commission chair Judge Raymond Zondo both publicly praised whistleblowers for their courage and emphasised the need to protect them. Many assumed that officials such...
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