SIU staff, witnesses face death threats, Andy Mothibi tells parliament

As the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) continues to strike against corruption, criminals are fighting back by intimidating staff and witnesses.

SIU head Andy Mothibi told parliament one of the biggest risks facing his organisation were threats to the lives of its staff, whistle-blowers and witnesses.

“We have threats to our investigators,” he said. 

“We get reports from our investigators, whistle-blowers and witnesses that their lives are at risk.

“We receive the reports on an increasing basis, and it is our observation that going forward, this is the kind of cost driver we must watch,” he said.

“This as the need to ensure their protection grows.”

Mothibi led an SIU team which was appearing before the justice portfolio committee on Tuesday to present its annual report for the 2021/2022 financial year.

In a presentation to the committee, the SIU said its security costs have increased because the unit has had to deploy security guards at all its offices across the country to ensure the safety of its employees and assets.

Mothibi said they analyse and assess all reports about threats, with the assistance of the police and the SIU’s internal integrity department.

“Once the report tells us the threat is substantiated, we are duty-bound to ensure the lives of our investigators or the whistle-blowers are protected, and we do it within the means we have.”

The unit also uses the National Prosecuting Authority’s witness protection programme, he said.

Mothibi said they have had an instance where a witness in one of the state capture matters received death threats and the SIU had to ensure the witness is protected and escorted to and from court.

“Without going into much detail for security purposes, the increase in security costs is solely because of that [threats].”

In its presentation, the SIU cited as a risk the “insufficient preparedness to respond to physical threats to SIU investigators and security breaches”.

It also stated the risk exposure remained high due to delays in concluding threat risk assessments by the police’s crime intelligence unit.

“However, the SIU is implementing short-term control measures while exploring sustainable risk mitigation plans.

“This includes RFQ [request for quote] procurement strategy to appoint service providers who will render protection services for the members who are threatened,” reads the document.

Mothibi said he hopes improvements to laws around whistle-blower protection would mean adequate funding would be made in this regard.

He said for the year under review, the SIU received 1,184 whistle-blower reports compared with 661 in the previous year.

“It shows the trajectory and this we believe is public confidence in the organisation.”

Dr Nandi Siwahla-Madiba, head of the SIU internal audit committee, said her committee had also raised concerns about the security of SIU personnel and has been deliberating on it in all their meetings to ensure it is mitigated.

“There is that high risk. It is noted in our registers and in terms of mitigation it is given priority,” she said.

Among its achievements, the SIU told the committee the rand value of potential cash and/or assets recovered due to its work was R5.9bn and R6.3bn of potential loss prevented. These are instances where it would have found contracts are irregular and the contracts continue to run, but its recommendations to state institutions were not to pay and to discontinue the contracts.

“Had it not been for the intervention, it could potentially have been lost by the state,” he said.

The SIU had enrolled 54 cases in the special tribunal to the contract value of R9.9bn.

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