A dodgy CEO, an energy company threatening lives: Who are they?

  • 📰 theage
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 53 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 24%
  • Publisher: 77%

South Africa News News

South Africa South Africa Latest News,South Africa South Africa Headlines

Important stories remain hidden due to our weak whistleblowing laws, outdated defamation laws, abuse of suppression orders and a growing practice by government departments to reject freedom-of-information requests or redact documents.

There's a stockbroking house whose CEO has made a fortune from alleged insider trading and other forms of market manipulation at the expense of clients. He has allegedly salted tens of millions of dollars of the illegal proceeds into Swiss accounts to avoid detection.If our legal system was different, the scandal would have been exposed and the CEO would have been called to account.

I can't tell you who he is or identify the companies involved because a whistleblower who told me about the story pulled out of going public in late 2016. Personal threats, pressure from their family not to go public and a failure of our laws to protect whistleblowers culminated in a settlement in return for a gag order. The corporate regulator was handed a file more than two years ago.If our legal system were different, the scandal would have been exposed and the regulator might then have sprung into action. The CEO would have been called to account.

There are many other stories that should be told but remain hidden due to our weak whistleblowing laws, outdated defamation laws, abuse of suppression orders and a growing practice by government departments to reject freedom-of-information requests or redact documents on the basis they are not in the public interest.

These restrictions, along with the recent raids on media outlets, contributed to us slipping two places to 21 in the World Press Freedom Index.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 8. in ZA
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

An excellent precis of our shortcomings around our right to know AND the need to force govt to protect whistleblowers. This sits at the very core of our society and to allow this govt to walk all over such critical freedoms is tantamount to treason.

South Africa South Africa Latest News, South Africa South Africa Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Uluru tourism companies not worried about climb closureTour companies are finding new ways for people to enjoy Uluru, without climbing it. They're either not worried or they too have succumbed to the virtue signalling epidemic.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »

Calls to change strata laws after developer's wife's company given long-term contractLaws that allow developers to appoint their relatives to long-term building caretaker contracts should be changed to better protect unit owners. There sure is some Massive Corruption going on out there in Aussie land developers r getting millions fr management contracts It is outrageous greed to squeeze extra profit
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »