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Private prosecutions can serve the public interest but the system needs better oversight and inspection.
Whistleblower Athol Williams, a former partner at Bain SA, testifies at the State Capture Commission in 2021.
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Whistleblowers should be entitled to financial support. But that has potential costs as well as benefits.
South Africa’s celebrated state prosecutor Gerrie Nel, known as ‘The Bull Dog’, is to lead the country’s first private prosecutions unit.
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Even though private prosecutions have been allowed in South African for almost 100 years, they are fairly rare and there has been only one known successful private prosecution.