Probably the most shocking whistle blower killing to occur in South Africa in recent times was the brutal assassination of Babita Deokoran, mother, family woman and senior manager at the Gauteng Health Department. Her attempts to prevent illicit Covid procurement payments running into the hundreds of millions led to her ambush and death in a hail of bullets as she arrived home after dropping her daughter at school. Shot fatally nine times, she died later in hospital.
In our history as South Africans, we witnessed the atrocities of apartheid police actions against antiapartheid fighters many of whom lost their lives: The system has changed but the tradition of whistleblowing remains – and with it a continued need to update our forensic work as citizens, so we understand and express what is afoot in our world, so that we can continue to improve the situations we find ourselves in, in order to raise political awareness around present challenges.
The South African Human Rights commission says whistleblowing is an essential weapon in the fight against corruption, perhaps the single most important obstacle to SA achieving the status it needs to achieve as a ‘moral’ Rainbow Nation. Because of South Africa’s history some observers reflect that the country is naturally drawn to stories of justice and reconciliation, hence perhaps the national instinct to support South Africa’s genocide application to the ICJ in the case of Israel vs Palestine.
