South Africa's Protected Disclosures Act, 2000
("PDA") offers protection for employees
who are whistleblowers, and who make "protected
disclosures", namely those that provide information exposing
criminal or other irregular conduct in the workplace. However, in
order to constitute a "protected disclosure" and be
afforded protection against any reprisals as a result of making a
disclosure, a disclosure must comply with the provisions of the
PDA.
In National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences
(NIHSS) v Lephoto and another, Mr Lephoto challenged the
fairness of his dismissal from the NIHSS, which he alleged was a
result of him making a protected disclosure and was therefore an
occupational detriment as defined in the PDA. He argued that this
constituted an automatically unfair dismissal in terms of the
Labour Relations Act, 1995.
