A Country Worth Fighting For

As a seasoned frontline journalist and broadcaster, Mandy Wiener has a unique perspective on current affairs and A Country Worth Fighting For on how history unfolds in South Africa.

Mandy has had a front row seat to the nine wasted years, the anatomy of the state capture project, the evisceration of state owned entities and the establishment of the shadow state.

But her focus is on the ‘Hope Dealers’, those who withstood the onslaught. She tells the stories of the good people who did their jobs, the whistleblowers who felt compelled to speak truth to power, the civil society activists who stepped into the breach and the journalists who dug up the dirt to hold authorities to account.

There are lessons in these stories for corporates and for individuals on what needs to be done to improve governance, to change legislation and to create a speak-up culture in order to root out corruption. Most importantly these stories will inspire the audience not to be apathetic or complacent, but to fight for a better South Africa.

A Country Worth Fighting For

Whistleblowing and Corruption – Shifting the Culture – A Societal Revolution

Mandy Wiener & Bianca Goodson

It was whistleblowers and journalists that brought down the State Capture project and helped bring widespread corruption and malfeasance into the light. Through exposing wrongdoing and dodgy deals, these brave individuals were able to hold power to account, return billions of stolen rand to the fiscus and remove a political regime.

Yet despite their heroism, whistleblowers are considered problematic, pushed to the fringes of society and treated like impimpis and pariahs. Sadly South Africa does not have a culture of celebrating or rewarding whistleblowing. In 2020, journalist Mandy Wiener published The Whistleblowers to highlight these experiences.  Shortly after the publication, Bianca Goodson, a former Trillian executive, wrote to the President urging him to protect whistleblowers as they are the strongest weapon against corruption.

In this talk, these two formidable women join forces and share unique insight through personal experience and the lessons for individuals and corporates around governance, culture and processes. They emphasise the need for a societal revolution in how we treat and protect whistleblowers. Are you just ticking the box or do you truly have the requisite systems and people in place to root out corruption?

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