A few recent news stories deserve to be highlighted, in case people missed them or didn’t realise their significance.
Pauli van Wyk’s exposé of Sasfin Bank’s alleged role in helping Gold Leaf Tobacco move billions of rand out of the country illegally, and to avoid tax, was important for a number of reasons.
The series of articles in Daily Maverick was lengthy, and it was challenging to get through all 4,000 words of the main piece, but it explained in great depth how the money was laundered, and the book entries apparently scrubbed from Sasfin’s records.
Though Sasfin has placed the blame on “one rogue former employee”, Van Wyk raises questions about this happening without senior officials noticing it.
The story gives the lie to a frequent accusation made about our investigative reporters: that they only target state corruption, particularly by black people, and let the private sector off lightly. It was never true, but it is good to see further evidence of reporting without fear or favour.
Our banks in particular have a reputation for being solid and reliable, but a string of accusations — think VBS Mutual Bank — must call into question whether there is adequate oversight. Again, brave and thorough work holds the line against corruption and poor governance.
Most of the material came out of an SA Revenue Service (Sars) court case, but Van Wyk had to piece it together to make sense of a complicated story, filling gaps with WhatsApp messages and other material to show the extent and scale of the problem.
She spent long hours on the phone with Sasfin senior officials explaining what happened, but remains convinced that their proclamations of being innocent victims of rogue staff do not add up. There is more to come on this story.
News24 too has done a sterling job over the last few months uncovering what lay behind the killing of Gauteng health department whistleblower Babita Deokaran. It has done dozens of stories, opinion pieces, editorials and podcasts, taking the issue on and not letting go.
It has exposed what lay behind her death: not just that she was onto large-scale tender fraud at Thembisa Hospital but that her superiors ignored her pleas for support. News24 has made a campaign out of it.
Pressure on the government to act to improve protection for whistleblowers is growing. Judge Raymond Zondo said in the report of his commission of inquiry into state capture that it is “the highest priority that a bona fide whistleblower who reports wrongdoing should receive, as a matter of urgency, effective protection from retaliation”.
He recommended the creation of an agency to handle whistleblowers, criminal and civil immunity for them and an awards system. This was welcomed by groups such as the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa and Whistleblowers for Change, but they and others said this is not enough.
The Protected Disclosures Act needs to be strengthened, and there needs to be a system of financial compensation if we are to encourage others to speak out and feel safe to do so.
Imagine, News24’s Mandy Weiner wrote, a Babita Deokaran Act “to ensure that those who emulate her, who put the brakes on corruption, are protected and rewarded and not murdered”. And, of course, to honour her memory.
It can’t be clearer that journalists and whistle-blowers have key roles to play in fighting corruption and both groups need recognition, reward and protection. Let’s hope President Cyril Ramaphosa offers this in his formal response to the Zondo recommendations.
Interestingly, the Deokaran coverage came from a mainstream outlet, the country’s biggest by a long way, and its investment in investigative reporters is paying off. Daily Maverick is one of the new breed of stand-alone sites that had the support of philanthropists and foundations for its investigative team, Scorpio.
These stories reinforce the business case for investigative journalism: investment in producing unique content pays off in so many ways: it builds audience, trust, identity and prestige, separating these outlets from all the run-of-the-mill daily coverage.
• Harber is executive director of the Campaign for Free Expression and Caxton professor of journalism at Wits University.
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