Statement: The KZN Department of Education must protect whistleblowers!
The KwaZulu -Zulu Natal Department of Education must protect whistleblowers against corrupt managers in its employ. It has a duty to do so.
The Right2Know Campaign is appalled to learn that senior managers at the KZN Department of Education in Pinetown allegedly used public monies to launch a witch-hunt against DOE KZN whistleblowers who compiled a dossier of corruption allegations against them. Staff members drew up the dossier which also has ‘proof’ of their allegations.
According to media reports, the officials spent R1.6 million in 2018 to hire a forensic company to ascertain the identities of the whistleblowers.
More telling is that officials in the higher echelons of the department did not take any action against the implicated officials after receiving the dossier, choosing instead to refer it back to them. The dossier was apparently presented to Education MEC Mr Kwazi Mshengu, past MECs and to Dr Enock Nzama, the Department’s HOD.
As the Right2Know Campaign, we are deeply concerned about this lack of oversight. It exposes the role of government officials in normalising corruption and a culture of impunity in our country. We are also especially concerned about the reprisals suspected whistleblowers in this matter had to endure. The forensic company, acting on the hunch that staff in the finance section were responsible for blowing the whistle on their ‘bosses’ removed hard drives from their computers, and impeded productivity. Staff worked in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Such retaliation against whistleblowing and the rights of whistleblowers has also become part of the corruption matrix over the years in South Africa, as wrongdoers attempt to cover their tracks.
The Protected Disclosures Act provides safety and protection for the employees who compiled the dossier. This law is key in our country, in protecting whistleblowers – private and public sector employees – who expose unlawful and other irregular conduct by their employers or fellow employees. It is certainly a law we expect government officials to know about and heed!
As noted in the case of Tshishonga v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Another (2006), “Whistle-blowers are not impipis, a derogatory term reserved for apartheid era police spies. Employees who seek to correct wrongdoing, to report practices and products that may endanger society or resist instructions to perform illegal acts, render a valuable service to society and the employer. Employees have a responsibility to disclose criminal and other irregular conduct in the workplace. Public servants have an obligation to report fraud, corruption, nepotism, maladministration and other offences. A company can have a cause of action against its directors for failing in their duty to report wrongdoing”.
As R2K in KZN we call on Premier Sihle Zikalala to:
– Instruct the MEC of Education to immediately suspend the implicated managers and institute an independent investigation
– Instruct the Education HOD to act on the 100-page dossier on alleged corruption
– Revive and equip the provincial Anti-Corruption Hotline
– Compensate the employees in question, and offer trauma counselling services
– Offer protection to whistleblowers as stipulated by the PDA, failing which R2K will consider legal action to enforce the protection of the whistleblowers.
R2K reiterates that to win the fight against corruption, we cannot allow criminals to operate with impunity. We must bring an end to the victimisation, abuse and persecution of whistleblowers.
Ends/
For more information contact:
Verushka Memdutt, R2K KZN PWG member: 083 311 6397
Burton Jaganathan, R2K KZN Coordinator: 076 215 4223
Sthembiso Khuluse, R2K KZN Organiser: 081 575 3832
