Abstract
Corruption has been a prevalent phenomenon
in South Africa for an extended period, but it
was during the presidential reign of Jacob
Zuma that corruption evolved into state capture.
South African whistleblowers were instrumental
in detailing the breadth and depth of state capture
during Zuma’s presidency. Their disclosures brought
the epidemic of state capture into the public eye,
making citizens aware of the crippling of stateowned
enterprises and the brazen looting of state
resources. The whistleblowers, however, did not
expect the backlash they would receive from the
wrongdoers and their employers. This article presents
the experiences of these whistleblowers, emerging
from semi-structured interviews conducted with
whistleblowers and civil society, as well as document
analysis of relevant sources. The whistleblowers’
disclosure experiences were marred by various forms
of retaliation: work-related retaliation; social retaliation;
physical retaliation; and a form of retaliation identified
from the narratives of South African state capture
whistleblowers—retaliatory lawfare.
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