Fabulous reads – Book unafraid to air dirty laundry
Book review - The Whistle Blowers by Mandy Wiener.
The Whistle Blowers, Mandy Wiener, Pan Macmillan
DEMOCRACY is still a relatively new concept around the world. According to the World Economic Forum, the United States of America has the world’s oldest democracy at 217 years but the Voting Right Act, that allowed African Americans to vote, was passed in 1969 and the USA still has one of the most restrictive voter freedoms in democratic countries.
The overarching message from The Whistle Blowers, is that democracy is still a fragile experiment that requires constant activism to keep alive.
The people profiled in the book range from martyrs, gatekeepers, truth seekers and convenient turncoats of our 26-year democracy.
In her fifth book, Mandy Wiener, has mastered the art of making non-fiction thrilling, while providing an accurate and factual description of the events.
The stories of the whistleblowers profiled here are not new – if you are an avid news reader you may have come across them and the protagonist.
For example, Angelo Agrizzi dominated news cycles and social media memes when he named and shamed all his Bosasa cronies who were looting money from the state during the state capture commission.
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Aside from this, little is known about Agrizzi. Did you know how he had dreams of becoming a chef until he met a very charismatic man who could speak Xhosa and his life’s trajectory changed? That man was the late Gavin Watson, the former Bosasa CEO who died in a heap of fire from a car accident in 2019.
Agrizzi may not meet the purest description of a whistleblower, as Wiener notes in the book, as many people may see him as a convenient turncoat who jumped off the gravy ship before it could sink to save his butt.
This would be diametrically opposite to Moss Phakoe, a former ANC member who was shot and killed after collecting information about corrupt activities in the Rustenburg municipality.
Between the two spectrums of Agrizzi and Phakoe are similar stories of bravery and acts of self-preservation. The stories will shock and excite you, reveal the fragility of our institutions and ultimately show that our democracy is worth fighting for.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
