Resources & Guidelines

POLICY BRIEF: Whistleblowers and investigative journalists play distinct yet interdependent roles that are critical to effective accountability and oversight. While whistleblowers bring misconduct to light, investigative journalists corroborate these disclosures, assess their broader implications, and disseminate findings to the public. Across Africa, whistleblowers and investigative journalists are essential play a critical role in exposing corruption, human rights abuses, illicit financial flows, and other forms of wrongdoing. Yet, for speaking out, they face similar and severe forms of retaliation, including Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), professional reprisals, intimidation, and coordinated efforts to silence or discredit them.

GUIDEBOOK: The Whistleblower Protection Guidebook provides practical guidance to whistleblowers who are determining whether to make a disclosure or who have made a disclosure and require guidance on how to navigate the complex legal framework that regulates whistleblowing in South Africa. Civil society institutions and plaintiff-side legal practitioners may also find this guidebook helpful as it distills the key legislative provisions which underpin whistleblower law in South Africa and advances suggestions on how to approach the intersection of the highlighted statutory provisions and South African common law.

REPORT: As South Africa awaits the public comment period for the Whistleblower Protections Bill and/or amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA), PPLAAF and the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (NACAC) held a conference to garner consensus on approaches and positions on both the PDA and the broader legislation that may serve as legal protection of whistleblowers in the country. This document acts as a Hive Document: Designed to be shared and disseminated in preparation for the public comment period, it consolidates key recommendations debated and agreed on at the conference