It’s late on a Tuesday. A member of your finance team asks to speak to you for ten minutes and closes the door. They say something in the numbers they were reviewing earlier doesn’t reconcile, and they believe you should know.
Sarika Lakraj-Naidoo understands what is at stake for the person standing in that doorway, asking to speak to their manager about a fraud or corruption suspicion. In 2019, as chief financial officer of the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Public Safety, she escalated concerns about expenditure on the City’s multi-billion-rand vehicle fleet to forensic investigators and the Hawks.
In June 2023, after 15 years with the City, she was dismissed on charges including gross misconduct, dishonesty and bullying, which she disputes. She maintains the dismissal was retaliation for her disclosures, and told the media this month that she has since struggled to find work and sold her wedding rings to support her family. She has also been the target of a shooting.
“I suffered the consequences for doing the right thing,” she said.
“Almost every whistleblowing starts with someone asking their manager, ‘Can we chat?'” says Tebogo Khaas is the founder and chairperson of Public Interest SA. “That manager’s response determines whether that person will ever raise a concern again. We invest a great deal in asking ordinary people to be courageous, and far too little asking leaders how they respond once someone is.”
Nearly 90% of staff may knock on your door to report fraud or corruption
The Ethics Institute’s latest Public Sector Ethics Survey canvassed more than 7 100 public servants. Of those who reported misconduct, 87% went to their direct manager or supervisor. Whatever you invest in a hotline, every line manager is part of your early-warning system, trained for it or not.
Only two in five respondents who witnessed misconduct reported it. Among those who stayed silent, 86% believed nothing would be done and 81% expected to be victimised. “Any private-sector board that reads these as somebody else’s numbers is missing the point,” says Khaas.
Your response sets the precedent
Dismiss the concern, become defensive, alert the person implicated or never follow up, and the precedent is set. The person who raised it reads that as a lack of belief or trust. Everyone who saw them walk in comes to the same conclusion.
“People don’t learn silence from a policy manual,” says Khaas. “They learn it from what happened to the last person who flagged a suspicious finding. Finance clerks notice when a senior official flags suspicious business dealings through proper channels and loses their job.”
Retaliation is seldom a formal decision or an action that’s visible to everyone,” adds Khaas. “Sometimes it’s as subtle as being removed from the team WhatsApp group or staff refusing to sit for coffee with the person who spoke up in the pause area.”
How to respond when someone comes forward
Most executives say their door is always open. That means very little if walking through it costs someone their career. Public Interest SA’s guidance includes:
- After they’ve shared, acknowledge the courage it took for them to flag the irregularity before the instinct to defend your team takes hold.
- Before they leave, set out what happens next and when. Limit knowledge of their identity to those who need it, because one breach of confidentiality could undo years of building trust between you and your employees.
- From day one, keep a clear and accurate record of what was disclosed, what you did and whom you told, with dated copies held securely. Should it reach a hearing, that record protects everyone, you included.
- In the weeks that follow, report back, even if the matter is still under investigation. Then act. A disclosure that disappears into a drawer undermines everything else on this list.
- At three months, six months and the next performance review, check in. Restructures, unexpected disciplinary charges and sudden “attitude problems” tend to surface after a disclosure. If they stem from it, the Protected Disclosures Act calls that occupational detriment.
Hold every manager to the same standard
Responsibility does not rest with the CEO alone, but the tone is set at the top. “Leadership in an office culture of flagging fraud and corruption shows up at every level,” says Khaas. “It’s the team leader who says, ‘thank you for telling me’ instead of ‘why are you causing trouble?’ And the colleague who still sits with the whistleblower in the pause area.”
Somewhere in your organisation, someone has already noticed something that doesn’t sit right. Whether they knock on your door depends on what happened to the last person who did.
Continue the conversation
This conversation takes centre stage at Public Interest SA’s Whistleblowers Awards and Summit 2026 on 26 and 27 October at The Venue, Melrose Arch, Johannesburg. After an awards evening honouring South African whistleblowers, the Summit convenes leaders from government, business, civil society, academia and the media to examine how institutions should receive, respond to and protect those who raise concerns.
