On 9 April 2026 the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development gazetted the Protected Disclosure Bill, 2026. The Bill seeks to repeal and replace the Protected Disclosures Act 26 of 2000 (“the PDA”) in its entirety, and to address some of its widely acknowledged shortcomings.
The Bill accordingly represents an overhaul of the existing whistleblowing framework, aiming to provide better protections and support for whistleblowers both inside and outside of the workplace.
We set out some of the key proposed reforms that employers should be aware of.
Expansion of whistleblower protection
- Perhaps the most important development is the new definition of ‘discloser’, which has the effect of extending whistleblower protections to any person who makes a disclosure. This casts the net much wider than the PDA and will ensure protections for contractors, consultants, agents, volunteers, trainees or other persons assisting in an employer’s business.
- Protections are also afforded to ‘related persons’, who are defined as family of the discloser or someone in a relationship with them.
New compliance obligations for employers
- The Bill requires employers to create internal procedures for receiving and handling disclosures, bring those procedures to the attention of its employees, and identify and appoint a ‘designated officer’ to deal with disclosures.
- The procedures for receiving and handling disclosures must include reporting channels, time frames for investigation, referrals to the South African Polices Services, anonymous reporting, confidentiality, investigations into other forms of improper conduct and providing feedback to the discloser.
- Certain timeframes are also introduced for ‘authorised persons’ (a term which includes employers) to acknowledge receipt of disclosures, conducting preliminary investigations, providing feedback to disclosers and completing investigations within 12 months, unless this period is extended by a retired Judge in terms of the proposed section 24.
- The Bill also requires employers with websites to publish information regarding whistleblowing on their websites, including an explanation of what constitutes a protected disclosure, the procedures for making such a disclosure, relevant contact details, and the remedies and protections available to whistleblowers against occupational detriment.
Creation of a government database for disclosures
- The Bill proposes the creation of a central database for disclosures by the Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
- The database must make provision for the registration of ‘authorised persons’ and the uploading of various information related to the disclosure by the authorised person, such as when it was received and what steps have been taken in response to the disclosure.
Protections for whistleblowers
- The Bill introduces significant new protections for whistleblowers, including prohibiting disclosure of the identity of a whistleblower or any information which may lead to the identification of a whistleblower, protections against occupational detriment or other detrimental action, granting a whistleblower protections under the Witness Protection Act 112 of 1998, legal assistance through Legal Aid, and it also contemplates financial rewards for whistleblowers.
- The Bill also seeks to change the established legal position by requiring an employer or another person who has allegedly retaliated against a whistleblower to prove that they have not engaged in such conduct, provided that the whistleblower has proven that they made a protected disclosure and suffered a detriment linked to that disclosure.
- Unfortunately, employees routinely abuse whistleblower policies to avoid or delay disciplinary or other action, and this change will likely impact employers considerably. While the Bill also criminalises making false disclosures intentionally, this is unlikely to deter opportunistic employees since a similar provision in the PDA has had little effect.
- Subjecting a whistleblower (or a related person) to an occupational detriment or detrimental action constitutes an offence in terms of the Bill, warranting a term of imprisonment not exceeding 15 years. This proposal is likely to elicit considerable debate and may be softened in a future draft of the Bill, especially when one considers all the other remedies available to whistleblowers.
The Bill is open for comment until 14 May 2026. Some of the provisions are controversial and employers should consider making submissions on some of them. What is clear, however, is that the legislature intends to position whistleblowing as an area of our law which must be given prominence. Whistleblowers, after all, should be celebrated for exposing malfeasance and corruption.
Employers will need to reconsider their existing whistleblowing policies and start thinking about changes which will need to be made. Importantly, given the prevalence of whistleblowing in some workplaces, employers will need to clearly articulate the whistleblowing policies (and train employees on) when those policies should be invoked.
