New organisation launched to support SA whistleblowers
Updated | By Anastasi Mokgobu
Executive director of the Whistleblower House Ben Theron says the country needs to provide whistleblowers with the neccesary support to allow them to continue providing crucial services.
Theron was speaking at the launch of the organisation on Tuesday.
The organisation, which is the brainchild of former South African Revenue Service deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, seeks to help whistleblowers get access to legal, financial, psychological and security support.
But Theron says the organisation also aims to create awareness of the role played by whistleblowers in strengthening ethics and democracy.
“We want to minimise all adverse impacts on whistleblowers by acknowledging the importance of the individual choosing to take a stand supporting whistleblowers in their journey of exposing institutional wrongdoing, and encouraging whistleblowing as a method of creating a more transparent and ethical society."
Theron says the organisation will ensure that whistleblowers receive professional services free of charge.
“The intention is to have a panel of different professionals and we are reaching out to them. So the idea is that we intend to do the service we will be providing pro-bono, although we refer the whistleblowers to legal firm, the service will be free.
"We look forward to the journey, it is going to taxing, it's going to be long and hard for us but we are here to help whistleblowers and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the impact on whistleblowers is minimised, if not completely removed,"
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