When whistleblowers win the facts but lose the law

South Africa’s fight against corruption depends on keeping a simple promise: those who expose wrongdoing will be protected by the law.

The long legal battle of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) whistleblowers Martha Ngoye and Tiro Holele has become a test of whether the state is doing that.

Nearly a decade of blowing the whistle 

More than a decade has passed since investigative reporting placed Prasa at the centre of one of South Africa’s largest procurement scandals ...