DA wants compensation for whistleblowers to be extended to all govt depts

JOHANNESBURG - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for the compensation of corruption whistleblowers to be extended to all government departments. 

This comes after the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) confirmed it would be paying whistleblowers who risked their livelihoods to expose over R2 billion worth of corruption at the entity. 

The commission has been plagued by multiple incidents of corruption where multi-million rand grants have been unlawfully disbursed to politically connected people. 

READ: Lotteries Commission tells MPs it's taking stringent measures to nip corruption in the bud

Babita Deokoran, Thembisile Yende, Cloete and Thomas Murray are just a few people who have been killed for blowing the whistle on government corruption. 

While the whistleblowers at the NLC have not suffered such a fate, some have lost their jobs and had their lives turned upside down. 

DA spokesperson for Trade, Industry and Competition, Toby Chance, said it's important government protects the livelihoods of whistleblowers. 

"We believe this must be a department-wide policy, applied to all entities within the DTIC [Department of Trade, Industry and Competition]. It is not good enough that it only happens sporadically and in this case only for the NLC," Chance said.

In a parliamentary response, the NLC said it had already started a reparation process with all affected whistleblowers.