Lionel Adendorf is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people find him arrogant. Others find him aloof. But, in all the years I have known him, I have always only seen the side of him that cares for the underdog and who is not afraid to speak truth to power.

In many ways, I see a younger version of myself in him and this could be why I have been following his career with great interest, from his days as a journalism student and leader at the Peninsula Technikon (now Cape Peninsula University of Technology) - when I was head of the journalism department - to his ascendancy in the ANC in the Western Cape, which saw him become spokesperson and a provincial executive committee member.

It is this obsession with telling the truth and standing up to power that has landed Adendorf in trouble. He lost his job in March 2017 after whistle-blowing on alleged irregularities in the Pretoria company where he worked and has not been able to find permanent employment since.

Last week, after keeping quiet for a long time Adendorf finally spoke up on social media, sharing the stories of his struggles since falling foul of the powers-that-be in Nuclear Technology Products Radioisotopes SOC Ltd (NTP).

Adendorf discovered the hard way that not many people like those who squeal on their colleagues and who stand up for the right thing - even though everybody professes to do so.

I could also have advised him that most people do not like you when you are down, but everybody loves you when you are on the up. Unless, of course, they can do something to help the person who is down and share what they have done with thousands of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers. This, of course, means that most people only help others if it means they can help themselves.

I do not want to go into the merits of Adendorf’s case, save to say that the public protector ruled in his favour, but now NTP is taking her report on review. I have tried to paste together what happened, based on the public protector’s report (which I have seen), Adendorf’s social media posts and discussions with people close to this story.

In November 2016, while he was employed as manager, group communication and stakeholder relations at NTP, Adendorf reported what he perceived to be tender irregularities to one of his seniors. Instead of protecting him as a whistle-blower, a requirement under the Public Disclosures Act, the company brought charges of “gross insubordination and blatant refusal to obey direct lawful and reasonable instructions”.

The company argued that the allegations raised by Adendorf “amount to not more than a false, spurious, unfounded, unsubstantiated and defamatory statement”, which did not qualify as a public disclosure.

After to-ing and fro-ing, a period which Adendorf described as unbearable, he quit his job in March 2017. NTP eventually took action against the manager Adendorf had accused of corruption (which tender irregularities are), but for unrelated reasons.

The public protector, in her report in December, found that Adendorf’s disclosures were done “in good faith” and that he was “unfairly prejudiced by the conduct” of the NTP officials. She ordered NTP to apologise to Adendorf within 10 days, reappoint him within 20 days, pay him his full salary and other expenses. NPT has refused to act, citing their court review.

Adendorf told me about how he and his family were stuck in Pretoria for many months, having to live off the generosity of friends and family.

The public protector report unveils a familiar world in which whistle-blowers often become pariahs. No wonder corruption continues unabated, when the messenger gets shot while the perpetrator walks free.

(First pubilshed as a Thinking Allowed column in the Weekend Argus on Saturday 1 February 2020)