The Public Servants Association has called on the South African Tourism board to stop its forensic investigation into identifying the whistle-blower who lifted the lid on the proposed R1-billion deal with English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur.
The PSA said whistle-blowers needed to be protected in the country to fight and stamp out corruption.
It said they should not be targeted by organisations and state entities.
The PSA said the forensic investigation was a waste of taxpayers’ money, and the SAT board should be looking at giving protection to the person who leaked the documents.
The call by the PSA comes after the SAT board said on Wednesday it had launched a probe into the identity of the person who blew the whistle on the Spurs deal.
The parliamentary portfolio committee on tourism has also called for the deal with the football team to be cancelled.
The PSA said whistle-blowers were key in the fight against corruption in the country.
“The protection of whistle-blowers remains key and central to the fight against corruption. The interests of the country and its citizens must be prioritised over self-enrichment schemes disguised as government programmes to improve the country,” said the union.
It said SAT had lost the plot and should be looking at scrapping the deal.
The union said that SAT was not above the law, and was accountable to the country. They said they would not allow a situation where people who leaked information on corruption in their entities were targeted.
“The (SAT board) is out of touch with reality, and is only focused on shrouding itself in glory with this proposed deal. The launch of a forensic probe into the leaking of these ‘confidential’ discussions adds to the senselessness of this matter. The (SAT board’s) attitude leaves much to be desired as it seems to think that it is not accountable to the country, and wants to deal with whistle-blowers,” said the PSA.
It added that the murders of the bodyguard of Fort Hare University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sakhele Buhlungu Mboneli Vesele, and Babita Deokaran from the Gauteng Department of Health, showed the risks of blowing the whistle on corruption.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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