R2K salutes “Women Whistleblowers”

On Saturday, 30th of August the Right2Know Campaign hosted a “Women and Whistleblowing” event as part of our August Women’s Month celebration. The event was at the Lutheran Centre at 8th Avenue, Belgravia Estate in Athlone.

The purpose of the event was to:

• Raise awareness about the importance of whistleblowing
• Discuss how we can support whistleblowers in our communities and broader society.
• To provide a safe space for women whistleblowers to share their stories and the impact it had on their families.

The following panel of speakers shared their experiences, lessons and challenges:

1. Alison Tilley – Human rights activist and convenor of the Right2Know Whistleblower Programme of the Right2Know Campaign. She gave a background on whistleblowing in South Africa and shared about the Right2Know Whistleblower programme.

2. Gabrielle Lubowski – Wife of the late Anton Lubowski, Namibian activist who fought against apartheid and was assassinated. She is now taking steps with the judges who dealt with his case and the Namibian government to restore his legacy.

3. Roegchanda Pascoe – Elected member of Right2Know’s National Working Group. Roegchanda has been a lifelong community activist in Manenberg. In 2011 she exposed fraud, possible embezzlement and corruption in the National Extended Public Works Programme being rolled out in the very impoverished community of Manenberg on the Cape Flats. Her case is now being considered by the Public Protector.

4. Imraahn Mukaddam – His courage in challenging the bread cartels opened the way for small bread distributors who launched a class action against bread manufacturing giants for losses related to uncompetitive behaviour. After many attempts at legal assistance, he was finally successful at the Constitutional Court. He shared how his entire family has been impacted by the whistleblowing action. Crumbs, a feature documentary about his journey was screened at the event.

Laughter Exercise:
Sylvester Gasana, a process facilitator took the women through a laughter exercise which was designed to allow women to access their struggle energy at any time as it is part of them being connected to others in a powerful way. The reprisal that comes as a result of whilsteblowing, often causes barriers in the ability of whistleblowers to keep faith in the humanity and goodwill of those on whose behalf they spoke out against. Laughter is one way to release some of the energy and keep in touch with positive energy.

Quiz on Whistleblowing:

Alison was requested to ask the participants to answer two questions, which two of them would receive a silver whistle as a winning prize. Most of the audience could answer what a whistleblower is and two were right about whether there is legal protection for whisteblowers outside employment.

Outcome of the Event:

• The concept of whilsteblowing has been demystified through a variety of methodologies including playing documentary on whistleblowing, inputs by whistleblowers with questions and comments from participants, laughter exercise and a quiz on whistleblowing.
• Women have an increased understanding of the importance of whistleblowing.
• Women of R2K has rallied successfully around a theme and made it accessible to a wider audience of women.
• There was a pledge to support other women who speak out against irregularities at workplaces, business and government, women like Thuli Madonsela for example.
• Women expressed that they would have more courage now to speak out against wrongdoings and irregularities as they have been inspired by the examples of the whistleblowers that they have listened to.

Women from around the Cape Flats were part of the event and learned a lot about whistleblowing and the importance of speaking up…WOMANDLA!PICS: Ghalib Galant