Whistleblowers, Make Sure to Report Corruption Only During Business Hours

Anyone in South Africa wanting to report corruption, take note: You can only do it during business hours, even though whistleblowers tend to call out of office hours and not from their place of work.

The Public Service Commission – the custodian of the corruption hotline – recently told a portfolio meeting of Parliament that members of the public can call “five days per week and eight hours per day.”

This despite the fact that, as PSC Commissioner Michael Seloane told the committee, “People usually don’t call while they are at work. They call after hours.” Until 2016, the hotline apparently functioned 24/7.

Leon Schreiber, the Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of the Public Service, said that the hotline had received 1,591 complaints in the past financial year. Yet because of a lack of resources, only 64 cases had been investigated and only 18 people at national level were found guilty of misconduct and only two dismissed.

“By starving the anti-corruption hotline of funding, the ANC government has effectively rendered it toothless in the fight against escalating looting,” he said. “As a result, whistleblowers and desperate members of the public are now met by the hollow voice of an answering machine if they call after hours or over weekends. The effect is to severely limit the number of corruption cases that are reported and investigated.”

“Limiting the ability of the PSC and the anti-corruption hotline to stem the rising tide of corruption suits the criminals in the ANC like a glove, leading to the suspicion that the government has deliberately starved the hotline of the funding it needs to operate effectively.”

The government’s toll-free anti-corruption hotline is 0800 701 701.