Whistleblowing: Poems, by Athol Williams

Whistleblowing springs from Athol Williams’s courageous stand as a whistleblower and witness before the State Capture Commission in 2021. However, the book transcends state capture, to also blow the whistle on the injustices we tolerate and foster in South Africa, particularly against women and the economically vulnerable. The poems reveal the perpetual burdens of these injustices, cursing us with lives dominated by fear and loss. Williams portrays the pervasive suffering not as accidental but by design – driven by political and corporate corruption, and enabled by everyday disregard or deleterious intent.

The whistles in these poems blow loudly, drawing our attention to the urgent need for a unifying moral and social vision. Whistleblowing is Williams’s sixth poetry collection. It includes the award-winning poem, ‘Visit at Teatime.’