PROTECTED SPACE
THULI MADONSELA: Fair payment for whistle-blowers
If SA wants people to take on immense personal risk to unmask corruption, it needs to ensure they are adequately compensated
It’s time to give serious consideration to paying whistle-blowers. It’s the least we can do, given the perils they go through. I’ve been pondering this idea since I attended an anticorruption round-table, hosted by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, when I was still public protector. In the US, whistle-blower compensation is the cornerstone of a blossoming industry. My commitment to lobby for a law that compensates whistle-blowers was renewed during a recent chat with top Boston lawyer Jack Cinquegrana, during a reunion for the 2017 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative. "You don’t pay whistle-blowers?" Cinquegrana asked, clearly flabbergasted. He is a hard-nosed investigative lawyer who is as passionate about investigating corruption as he is about extending access to justice to marginalised communities, particularly migrants. "In my state this is a huge industry wherein lawyers like myself make money," he said. He explained that, in the state of Massachusetts, the law provides tha...
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