TEBOGO KHAAS | Madlanga must challenge SA to protect those who speak truth to power

South Africa does not have a shortage of laws,commissions, strategies or solemn declarations about the fight against corruption. What we have too little of is something far more fundamental: the courage to protect the people who make accountability possible. When retired justiceMbuyiseli Madlangadelivers the keynote address on October 26, he will have an opportunity to challenge the country to confront one of the uncomfortable contradictions at the heart of our democracy: we celebrate those who expose wrongdoing, yet too often leave them to pay the price for doing so.

Madlanga’s gracious acceptance of our invitation to be this year’s keynote speaker is particularly significant. His reputation as a principled jurist and his association with constitutionalism, the rule of law and accountability make him uniquely placed to ask a question South Africa can no longer avoid: What kind of democracy asks citizens to speak truth to power while failing to protect them from the consequences? Whistleblowing is often described as an act of courage.

That description is accurate but incomplete. It is also an act of citizenship. A whistleblower chooses the public interest over personal safety, career advancement, financial security, institutional loyalty or, in the most extreme cases, life itself.

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They make it possible for corruption that would otherwise remain concealed to become visible. They provide the first warning that a procurement system is being manipulated, a public institution captured, a criminal network embedded within an organisation or public resources diverted for private gain. Yet our institutional response has too often been to treat the whistleblower as a problem rather than as an asset. The killing of people who expose wrongdoing has made the issue impossible to dismiss as merely an employment dispute or a matter of internal corporate governance.

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