‘They have broken me, my life is hell’

Apology to Lerato Nage

Former Daybreak Farms board chair Lerato Nage lodged a complaint with the Press Council, saying that the Sunday Times was wrong in reporting that he was linked to individuals who siphoned off money from the company, and that former Daybreak auditor Mathapelo More was neither a whistleblower nor was she fired for exposing corruption.

Ombudsman Herman Scholtz ruled that the Sunday Times breached the Press Code for stating allegations as fact in the article and not providing Nage with an opportunity to respond to the allegations prior to publication. For these breaches, the Sunday Times apologises to Nage and our readers. Nage’s responses have since been included in the article.

The Ombudsman did not make a finding on the correctness or otherwise of these allegations.

For the full finding, please see www.presscouncil.org.za.

This article was amended following a ruling by the Press Ombudsman.

An auditor who blew the whistle on her bosses in a bid to prevent the theft of more than R200m from a company owned by state pensioners and workers is on her knees, unable to pay school fees and almost losing her home.

Mathapelo More was fired from Public Investment Corporation-owned Daybreak Farms almost two years ago after exposing alleged irregular payments to companies linked to senior PIC and Daybreak officials.

This week she contacted the Sunday Times to talk about the hardships she has endured after she and her colleagues exposed the alleged looting at the company.

More said she decided to break her silence after being forced to remove her daughter from a private school because she could no longer afford its fees. The education department placed the child in a school in Buhle Park township, Germiston, 12km away, but More later managed to enrol her in a former model C school nearby. 

All the people we have reported this to, including the PIC, have done absolutely nothing and we continue to go through the worst hell 

—  Mathapelo More, former auditor at PIC-owned Daybreak Farms 

“This year it felt like I can no longer do this, so I thought to just call you and do this interview to let them know that they have won. They have broken me,” the single mother of two said in an interview at her home in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, this week. 

“It’s hard to ask people for help all the time. So, most month ends I just sit here at home, and hope that someone will think of me and send something. I’m not used to this because I have always been able to do everything for myself. 

“In South Africa nobody cares about the Protected Disclosures Act, and nobody cares about whistleblowers. They leave you out there to hang, and they watch you while it is happening.”

In 2021, More and three colleagues including the company’s CEO began alerting senior PIC management to alleged looting and governance breaches at Daybreak. By then, they said less than R1m had been stolen. If they had been listened to, more than R200m could have been saved.

“All the people we have reported this to, including the PIC, have done absolutely nothing and we continue to go through the worst hell,” she said. 

“Our lives are ruined — my fingerprints have been flagged for a criminal investigation and I cannot get a job. Thieves have stolen more than R200m and no-one is even attempting to hold them accountable.”

While those who apparently looted the company remain free, More:

• has not earned a salary for nearly two years;
• won a case against Daybreak at the CCMA last year and was awarded reinstatement and more than R700,000 in back pay but the company has spent millions of rand appealing this decision;
• had to fight tooth and nail to save her home that was almost paid up, with friends and relatives clubbing together to gather the remaining amount after her bank wanted to repossess the house;
• watched as her son was forced to drop out of the University of Cape Town in his third year because she could no longer afford the fees; 
• cannot find a job because potential employers view her as a risk; and
• had to deal with her parents' fears as Hawks officers visited them demanding to know about her personal relationship. 

In the past 22 months she has endured intimidation and abuse, including several civil claims and a criminal charge of fraud and money-laundering that was withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority but which remains hanging over her head because the Hawks investigating officer insists he is still investigating the case.

Staring at a blank TV screen in her lounge on Wednesday, More said even though she had lost faith in the system, she would do it all again, but anonymously. 

But a few hours later, she called and said: “I’ve been thinking about this since we spoke, and actually I would never do this again. Everything I have been through, and what I have put my children through, I would never wish on even my worst enemy.”

She said: “Some of my neighbours and friends who are in government have asked: ‘But why did you say anything?’ That’s the attitude, that ‘we don’t talk about these things’. Some even say: ‘There are things that are happening where I work, but I keep quiet.’ People are literally saying: ‘You are a snitch, you should have kept quiet’,” she said.

More’s problems began in January 2021 when the PIC announced to Daybreak, where she worked as an audit and risk manager, that it had appointed a new board made up of three nonexecutive directors including chair Lerato Nage. 

At the time, Daybreak, which the PIC bought for R1.2bn, was being turned around. Before Nage’s board took over, the company had gone from posting a R536m loss to a R239m profit and had reduced its debt from R1.5bn to R266m. 

“When we were turning Daybreak around, I got death threats and was insulted at work regularly because we were cleaning up supply chains and renegotiating contracts. The reason we sent that letter to the PIC in January 2021 was because we did not want Daybreak to go back to what it was, and we thought the PIC also wanted to avoid this,” she said. 

Nage denied any irregularities or corruption under his watch. He said the board under his leadership exposed irregularities committed by the management of Daybreak Farms, including More. 

Last October, the Sunday Times reported that more than R150m had allegedly been siphoned from Daybreak through irregular procurement deals that benefited individuals linked to Nage and PIC company secretary Bongani Mathebula. The Sunday Times reported that the acting CEO had been suspended after a further R50m in payments to the same people had been approved.

Nage denied any links to the service providers, saying he was a chartered accountant and not a lawyer and had no association with the law firms involved. He said the law firm in question was appointed after the board considered three quotes and was not his sole decision.  

A Sunday Times investigation over several months uncovered that Mathebula, who has styled herself as a whistleblower against former PIC boss Dan Matjila, was identified by the PIC’s own forensic investigation as having allegedly flouted and manipulated its policies to appoint the board chaired by Nage, with whom she had previously worked but had not declared. The investigation also found that information on her laptop, as well as that of a key subordinate of hers, had been erased. Nage denied that policies of the PIC were flouted in appointing him to Daybreak's board.  

Mathebula remains at the PIC. While she has confirmed being a former partner at one of the law firms that irregularly benefited from R116m in Daybreak contracts, she has continually maintained that she was not involved in any wrongdoing.

But More and her colleagues, former Daybreak CEO Boas Seruwe, CFO Kobus van Niekerk, Magda Senekal and HR executive Votelwa Majola, were hounded out and are battling to clear their names after alerting the PIC to the alleged governance breaches and maladministration by Nage’s board. 

More has paid a heavy price since that letter was sent to the PIC.

“At night, sleep would never come for two to three days on end, and I would lie awake thinking about where the money would come from for school fees, buying food and paying Ekurhuleni when they cut off my electricity. You feel like you’re so alone and you’re losing your mind,” she said. 

“I used to have a collection of wines, but I don’t any more because I drank it all. I went from drinking one glass with a meal, to finishing an entire bottle by myself. But my family intervened and encouraged me to go back to gym, which a sibling is paying for.”

More’s story has angered former government communications and information systems CEO Themba Maseko, who was fired for standing up to former president Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family and was unemployed for more than a decade. 

Whistleblowers do the right thing and get punished. On one hand we say we want corruption to end, but people who are leading the fight, whistleblowers inside the state or companies, are left on their own and [are] losing their lives

—  Former government communications and information systems CEO Themba Maseko

“Whistleblowers do the right thing and get punished. On one hand we say we want corruption to end, but people who are leading the fight, whistleblowers inside the state or companies, are left on their own and [are] losing their lives,” Maseko said.

“What South Africans need to be thinking about now is that these state capture cases are starting in courts. More people are going to be arrested and there will be charges. This very same society will be expecting whistleblowers to be witnesses.

“You ask yourself why the hell they should do that when they will continue to be unemployed, unable to take their children to school and watching their families fall apart.”

Last year, More won a CCMA challenge to her dismissal and was awarded R721,229 in back pay, R14,100 in legal costs and reinstatement. But Daybreak approached the labour court on an urgent basis to appeal this and, 10 months later, the matter is yet to be heard.

Chief justice Raymond Zondo’s office did not respond to questions this week about delays in the matter, saying he had “indicated that he cannot respond to cases that might end up at the Constitutional Court”.

In his state capture commission reports, Zondo decried the lack of protection for whistleblowers. 

This week, the PIC said a number of Daybreak-related complaints were brought to its attention and it “continues to deal” with them.

“The current board of Daybreak is aware of the whistleblower complaints and ... the board is dealing with these. The current board should be given sufficient space and time to do its work, especially given the historic challenges. It would not be proper for the PIC to interfere with the processes initiated by the board which are under way.

“As a shareholder of Daybreak, the PIC will provide the necessary support to the board as required,” it said.

Ben Theron, CEO of Whistleblower House, a non-profit organisation that works with whistleblowers, said: “Government is not stepping in and part of the problem is that people in government are corrupt. Society does not support whistleblowers. They feel sorry for them but don’t support them. You are a leper in society.

“People reach out to us every day, every week, every month. We had whistleblowers come to us on Friday saying they’re jobless, being threatened and traumatised. It is emotional for us.”