Overview
- Speaking at Stellenbosch University’s inaugural Babita Deokaran lecture in Bellville, CoGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa vowed to standardise whistleblower protocols and back the Whistleblower Protection Bill with witness-protection reforms.
- Hlabisa said enforcement would include using the Auditor‑General’s material irregularity powers and certificates of debt to hold officials accountable for ignored remedial actions.
- The minister outlined further steps reported by attendees, including criminalising threats, enabling anonymous disclosures, funding legal and psychosocial support, and introducing mandatory municipal reporting frameworks.
- He condemned the recent killing of key witness Marius van der Merwe as a national wake-up call, saying the government must move from platitudes to protection and accountability.
- Family members and advocates invoked Deokaran’s example—she halted over R850 million in suspicious payments at Tembisa Hospital before her 2021 assassination—with her brother urging South Africans to live by her values and activist John Clarke warning that integrity is still being punished.