We should be chilled by the knowledge that fraud and corruption are so out of control in our country that a woman of integrity and courage in the public service is gunned down outside her home by assassins, for the perceived offence of co-operating with the Special Investigating Unit's investigation of R332m in PPE fraud in the Gauteng government.
What further evidence do we need of our country's dangerous descent into a gangster state?
The brutal murder of Gauteng health department chief director Babita Deokaran is a devastating loss to her family, friends, colleagues and loved ones. But her assassination is also a huge loss to a provincial government desperately in need of honest, ethical and reform-minded leaders.
It is a stain on our body politic, one that exposes the sickening truth that the rewards of corruption, theft and dishonesty in SA are now bigger than those of honesty, courage and integrity.
The killing of Deokaran this week adds murder to a growing list of disincentives for honest public servants and private sector leaders to report corruption and mismanagement in government procurement, and the misuse of public funds for private gain.
Former Trillian Management Consulting CEO Bianca Goodson is probably the most well-known of our country's state capture whistleblowers who have suffered the devastating effects of going public. She testified in parliament and at the state capture inquiry. Thanks to her efforts and co-operation, Eskom obtained an order to recover from Trillian almost R600m in bogus payments and looted funds.
Yet earlier this year, Goodson was forced to make a public appeal for financial support as she found herself unemployed and seemingly unemployable, a pariah in the private sector for the twin offences of honesty and courage in the face of rampant corruption.
She has had to reckon with mental health challenges due to the financial stress of prolonged unemployment, has lost her home and had to move back in with her parents at the age of 41.
In perhaps the most serious indictment of South Africans as beneficiaries of Goodson's integrity, her campaign to rase R1m to pay her debts and return her financial situation to a semblance of normalcy has attracted only R136,000 in donations - just over 10% of what she so desperately needs.
All while the vast majority of the Gupta-linked crooks she exposed continue to feast on the proceeds of their crimes.
No good deed, as they say, goes unpunished.
To Bianca Goodson's we may add the names of former Government Communication & Information System CEO Themba Maseko and former SAA group treasurer Cynthia Stimpel amongst many whistleblowers who have been sidelined and snubbed by former friends and associates, while the corrupt continue to move about freely in respectable circles.
What further evidence do we need of our country's dangerous descent into a gangster state?
Maseko exposed the Zuma administration's attempt to divert every cent of the annual R600m government advertising budget to the Guptas' mediocre The New Age newspaper and their ANN7 TV news channel. He refused to partake in the feeding frenzy, blew the whistle and was fired from his post.
Stimpel exposed a dodgy deal between the national carrier and BNP Capital worth R256m, while also shedding light on the rot at the airline under disgraced group chair Dudu Miyeni, who once had the audacity to tell a meeting of SAA's top leadership that "it's our time to eat".
In addition to being victimised at work before being fired for their disclosures, Maseko and Stimpel have had to live with financial uncertainty, denial of access to work opportunities, and the indignity of having former professional acquaintances turn their backs on them for fear of being "tainted" - by what? I do not know. Their courage and integrity, perhaps.
The Protected Disclosures Act is supposed to guard against the excesses of employers who seek to punish whistleblowers with vexatious disciplinary procedures or unfair dismissal when they expose wrongdoing. Yet it has not prevented the victimising of countless whistleblowers who now find themselves in personal and financial straits.
In addition, the escalation of retribution by the corrupt - from illegal surveillance and intimidation to targeted assassinations, as in the tragic events of this week - shows that the time has come to devote financial resources to support employees who make protected disclosures about corruption and wrongdoing.
This support could take any number of forms, including a monthly stipend for illegally fired or suspended whistleblowers, or providing increased security and protection for those who are in danger of criminal retribution.
In addition, we must question our own responses to those who put themselves at risk for the benefit and protection of the broader society. We must change the toxic social culture that views those who are willing to stand up for what is right as "dangerous" while rewarding those who turn a blind eye to wrongdoing.
SA is at a crossroads: we can choose to fight for and rebuild this country, or to watch helplessly at the sidelines as crooked business interests, rogue states and unscrupulous politicians continue their asset-stripping of our country's precious resources. There can be no hope for the rebuilding process unless we put in place the protection necessary to enable ethical leaders to expose wrongdoing wherever it occurs.
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