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Saturday, May 16, 2026

Why whistleblowers continue to be targeted: 'Lack of physical protection for those who expose wrongdoing' - IOL

Image: OUTA

A new national initiative aimed at strengthening whistleblower protection, ethical leadership and anti-corruption storytelling will officially launch in Johannesburg on Monday, 27 April 2026.

Courage Hub SA, described as South Africa’s first Ethics and Storytelling Centre, will be unveiled at 44 Stanley Avenue in Braamfontein Werf. The platform brings together civil society organisations, governance experts and whistleblower advocates in an effort to create structured support for those who expose corruption.

The initiative comes at a time when whistleblower safety in South Africa remains under intense scrutiny, following a series of high-profile killings and intimidation cases linked to corruption reporting in both public institutions and the private sector.

Among the most widely cited cases is that of Babita Deokaran, a senior Gauteng Department of Health official who was assassinated in 2021 after flagging irregularities linked to hundreds of millions of rand in procurement at Tembisa Hospital. Her killing, which investigators linked to her role in exposing corruption, has become a symbol of the risks faced by whistleblowers in the country.

More recently, concern has been raised over other reported killings and attacks on individuals linked to corruption investigations, including witnesses in broader state capture and law enforcement-related probes. In late 2025, a former police officer and protected witness in a corruption inquiry was shot dead outside his...



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