Communicating Whistleblowers’ Messages: The Role of Media in Exposing South Africa’s State of Capture

The phenomenon of state capture significantly impacted South Africa’s socio-political landscape during Jacob Zuma’s presidency (2009-2018). Simply put, state capture is when private actors influence the state through illegal and non-transparent forms. State capture in South Africa transpired largely because of an unethical nexus that formed around Zuma, those in government loyal to him, and the powerful business family – the Guptas. Revelations of state capture came to the fore because of independent media. Independent media was reliant on whistleblowers to communicate a complete narrative, which resulted in a mutually beneficial collaboration between independent media and whistleblowers. A qualitative research approach employing two methods was utilized to examine this collaboration. The dominant source of information for this study stems from semi-structured interviews conducted with whistleblowers and independent media outlet affiliates. The semi-structured interviews were further supplemented with document analysis, in order to corroborate the findings emerging from the interviews. This study found that independent media played a key role in supporting South African state capture whistleblowers. Support manifested in three forms, namely: defensive; emotional; and offensive support. Defensive support entailed legal, financial and security aid. Emotional support was provided in the form of informal counselling. Offensive support entailed using media exposure to make the whistleblowers’ narratives public, and mediating between whistleblowers and official commissions of inquiry.