Faith Group says Witness D Murder Shows South Africa is Failing Whistle-Blowers

A national faith alliance has warned that the murder of whistle-blower Marius van der Merwe shows South Africa is failing the people who risk their lives to expose corruption.

Van der Merwe was a former Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department officer who later ran a private security company doing mining security work and joint operations against illegal zama zama miners around Brakpan. He had previously appeared before the Madlanga Commission, which is probing serious abuses within the justice system. He was known as “Witness D” and was assassinated this past weekend in view of his wife and child.

The South African Community of Faith-Based Fraternals and Federations (SACOFF) said Van der Merwe tried to expose the alleged role of senior state and police figures in the torture and murder of a zama zama miner who was allegedly buried alive.

A statement from SACOFF’s president, Pastor Bert Pretorius, said he “stood for truth in a climate of fear and intimidation” and that “his courage must not be forgotten”.

Leaders from the alliance visited Van der Merwe’s home after the killing and described the candles and flowers left at his boundary wall as both a sign of mourning and a warning. They argue that Van der Merwe’s murder is not an isolated event but part of a pattern in which South Africans who challenge powerful criminal and political interests are picked off while the system fails to protect them.

According to SACOFF, evidence at the Madlanga Commission has already shown that policing is under strain, investigations are sometimes blocked or twisted, and criminal networks appear to be shielded from consequences. The alliance says the commission has itself suffered “a grave failure” because “one life lost is one too many” when a witness is killed after coming forward.

The statement notes that more than twenty-four whistle-blowers have been murdered in recent years and insists that they must not be reduced to numbers. It says they “are fathers, mothers, professionals, patriots” who believed that truth was worth defending. The list names victims including Babita Deokaran, Cloete and Thomas Murray, Charl Kinnear, and others, ending with Van der Merwe.

SACOFF argues that when witnesses are killed, the damage goes beyond individual families. It says such attacks strike at constitutional order, democracy, and the moral foundations of the country. In its closing lines, the alliance pledges that “the blood of those who stand for truth must not be in vain” and promises to keep pushing for “justice, accountability, and systemic reform” until the voices of those who spoke up are heard in full.

SACOFF sets out four main steps it believes are needed to protect whistle-blowers and rebuild trust.

First, it calls for real, practical protection for witnesses and whistle-blowers. That means proper security details, armed and trained to respond quickly to threats, and protection that lasts for as long as a person is at risk, rather than short-term gestures that look good on paper but fail in practice.

Second, the alliance wants a national inquiry into the killings of all whistle-blowers. Its aim is to ensure that every case is examined, patterns are identified, and failings in policing, prosecution, and witness protection are exposed. SACOFF says no case should be allowed to slip into the archives and be forgotten.

Third, it demands that everyone involved in these assassinations be arrested and prosecuted. This covers both the gunmen and those who order or organise the killings. SACOFF stresses that neither high office, uniform, nor title should shield anyone from accountability.

Fourth, the organisation calls for new laws that give much stronger protection to whistle-blowers. It wants legislation that guarantees confidentiality and anonymity, provides safe channels to report wrongdoing, and punishes those who leak or weaponise whistle-blower identities.

If the state can protect those who speak out, investigate past failures honestly, and bring both assassins and their sponsors to justice, then faith in the system can begin to recover. If not, the alliance suggests, every new killing of a whistle-blower will tighten the grip of corruption and deepen public fear.