We welcome the news, especially that it is coming from no less an authority than the President. A law on whistleblowing, the cornerstone of which is to protect the whistleblower in order to root out malpractice and its perpetrators, must of a certainty bolster existing anti-corruption initiatives. Because of its potential for promoting individual and organisational accountability, timeous blowing of the whistle should curb official abuse of power for private gain.
But President Khama must move with speed to put his money where his mouth is in order to ensure first that the law is passed, and then to give it teeth by means of supporting policies, programmes and personnel. Without harping on the issue, we want to note that whistleblowers will need to be protected because few things are worse than being victimised for doing the right thing. In equal measure, nothing is more bolstering for confidence in the pursuit of wrongdoers than immunity from both persecution and prosecution in any form. This is so because as we well know, wrongdoers can be vengeful in the extreme. And as we all know, it is true that the purveyors of corruption are usually powerful men - and women - who would not hesitate to bring a heavy hand on those who cross their path. The regime guaranteeing protection of whistleblowers is desirable also because our country lost its innocence long ago. In fact, corruption is rife and its tentacles are far-reaching, regardless of deafening international praise to the contrary.
