Sarah Burger: Corruption-busting attorney vindicated after 17-month-long fight

After 17 traumatic months, forensics attorney Sarah Burger has been vindicated - and is free from prosecution and persecution. She was arrested after uncovering massive corruption at Fort Hare University and ended up in the dock alongside some of those she had investigated. Now that all the charges against her have been withdrawn, Burger warns of consequences for those involved in the gross miscarriage of justice. “…the police and the NPA hold very, very powerful positions over people's lives and freedom of movement. And when you are abused in a process like this and as a legal practitioner, looking at this unfolding and feeling completely powerless, you want to say to yourself, gee, what an abuse of that unlevel playing field. So I believe that it is important from an integrity point of view, that these people come and answer at any committee, whether it's the Ethics Committee at the NPA or whether it's the Police Portfolio Committee for the police and in the other platforms where I plan to lodge complaints as well.” Meanwhile, Burger has already notified the SAPS that “we will be suing them - and the NPA will in due course hear from me as well”.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:02.379)After 17 months of sheer hell, forensics attorney Sarah Burger has been vindicated. She was arrested after uncovering massive corruption at Fort Hare University and ended up in the dock alongside some of those she had investigated. She is with us now. Welcome, Sarah. Sarah Burger (00:27.17)Thank you, Chris. Chris Steyn (00:30.435)Please describe for us your last court appearance. Sarah Burger (00:36.714)Unbelievably emotional. I suppose there's no reason to regret now crying on TV, but it was an extremely uncontrollable joyous and sad and all of those emotions together. And I'm just so grateful, so grateful that this can be put behind me. Chris Steyn (00:57.049)Okay, so for the record, they withdrew all charges. Sarah Burger (01:02.092)That's correct. All of the charges have been withdrawn. And as I said previously, and I say today, there was never any evidence against me to begin with. Just to to re-clarify that as well, I had not received a charge sheet aside from the charge sheet from 11 April 2024. I had not received a revised charge sheet to date. Chris Steyn (01:29.635)As a legal professional, how hard was it for you to be on the receiving end of such a gross miscarriage of justice? Sarah Burger (01:39.894)Unbelievable. For the last 17 months, I've been asking myself and my colleague, you know, where to from here. And, you know, if I'm honest with you, I think that I couldn't have done anything different. I mean, from the outset of being arrested over that Easter weekend, being flown up by the jets, being denied the rights of an attorney, all of those checks and balances that are available to an accused person who is supposed to be deemed innocent until proven guilty were taken from us. So I wish that I could go back and change those things and say that there was something that I could have done. But yeah, unfortunately, it is a position of feeling powerless. It is a position of being guilty until proven innocent. And yeah, it's just shocking. It's just shocking. Chris Steyn (02:43.565)Now that you have been cleared, how do you even begin to rebuild what was damaged and broken? Sarah Burger (02:53.368)I think there's a two-pronged now, that is personally, I just want to go and take a couple of weeks off and just try and calibrate with the news and calibrate with the last 17 months because you kind of don't know, you're just fighting fires every day, so you don't really know who you are at that point in time anymore, you're just going through the motions. So I do plan on taking a couple of weeks off and just relaxing in my garden - and spending time with the birds and also just like a normal person, laying on the couch and watching some Netflix with a duvet. On a professional level, I wish I could say that this whole saga was over, but we've still got to assist my colleague throughout the process. And I'm very busy at work already with that now. So I will be supporting him. And hopefully he can also sit next to me and celebrate soon. Chris Steyn (03:55.001)What steps are you taking against those officials you believe are guilty of misconduct in this persecution of yourself, Sarah? Sarah Burger (04:07.406)We've already laid complaints against the police and…throughout the 17 months. That included gross intimidation. …Everyone knows about the private jets. It wasn't just for us. It was for several other people. Then we had that despicable restraint application brought on us with 22 policemen and eight vans, for instance, just at Bradley's house. So complaints were then subsequently lodged about their conduct. Again, when we appeared now, there were what appeared to be National Intervention units and Task Team members in court again, multiple with rifles the size of human bodies. I mean, scary looking stuff. And, you know, one wonders to yourself, what is the purpose of that? We're not dangerous people. We're just standing there. We've always been obedient and quiet and compliant and, you know, following the law as legal practitioners would, but you've got all these heavy balaclavas, stun grenades and guns around you. So in short, we have lodged two complaints each with the Police Portfolio Committee. And I will be following up with that now and probably become like a chihuahua at the ankles of the chairperson of that committee because I believe that this should be investigated. And insofar as the National Prosecuting Authority are concerned, complaints were already lodged with the NDPP's office and there… an investigation that is underway already. So I won't speak about that, but I do believe that there will be an outcome and we have already been interviewed as part of that investigative process. There are other role players too, I won't go into it now, but as I said previously, accountability is what is required in this process. You know, the police and the NPA hold very, very powerful positions over people's lives and freedom of movement. And when you are abused in a process like this and as a legal practitioner, looking at this unfolding and feeling completely powerless, you want to say to yourself, gee, what an abuse of that, that unlevel playing field. So I believe that it is important… Sarah Burger (06:33.013)….from an integrity point of view, that these people come and answer at any committee, whether it's the Ethics Committee at the NPA or whether it's the Police Portfolio Committee for the police and in the other platforms where I plan to lodge complaints as well..Read more:.BN Briefing: Trump-EU tariff deal, Ramaphosa unfazed by US sanctions; PA advances in Western Cape.Chris Steyn (06:48.961)What message do you have today for those who arrested you Hollywood style? Sarah Burger (06:57.632)I don't know how these people sleep at night. I don't know how they feel proud to wear a badge when they just abuse their own processes and they don't follow their own protocols. This is, you know, criminal charges have got such wide, wide implications for a person, for an accused, you know, and did they just go home and chill? Because I did hear on the night that I was at the police station the first night, I heard one of the officers that had come to arrest me asking the local police, where can he find a shebeen so he can drink some beer? So he was clearly having a fantastic time and chilled. And then, of course, a big fun fair with the Jets and the media and the wrong courthouse and denying the right to an attorney. You know what? If you've got wonderful evidence, if you've got a solid case, follow your processes. Don't destroy people's lives. You've watched us fall apart for 17 months and abused us financially, mentally, emotionally, taken away freedom of movement unlawfully. No, no, I've got a code of ethics that I have to stand by. You do too. And the same applies to certain prosecutors in the National Prosecuting Authority. I have to just add this because I don't want to come across as an onslaught on the SAPS or the NPA. I know, I know they are very good policemen in the Hawks and generally and in the Prosecuting Authority. But this element that has caused such severe destruction in our lives must come to account because we as citizens - and not just ordinary citizens as lawyers that know how processes should be run - need to protect others that don't have a voice, that don't know how to collate the evidence, that don't know how to say this is unacceptable. People need to be protected. And the only way that you do that is by getting these people in front of committees to come and answer why they behaved in this fashion. Chris Steyn (09:14.349)Now you've suffered incalculable damages financially and professionally. There must be a way that you can recover that. Where to from here? Sarah Burger (09:28.536)I think the starting point, Chris, is freedom is priceless. That's the first part. Honestly, I wish I could just put everything of this behind me now and just take up a gardening job. Part of the accountability is highlighting this in court papers to say this is unacceptable and what you've done in the destruction of our business and our finances has got longer consequences than the 17-month period. It's permanent damage. It's permanent damage where clients always have this thought in the back of their mind. So they need to be taken to task on this. And yes, I have already notified months ago within the six month period, the SAPS that we will be suing them and the NPA will in due course hear from me as well. Chris Steyn (10:20.067)Sarah, before I let you go to celebrate further, just recap for us the extent of the corruption that you had uncovered at Fort Hare University and what consequences have there been for those implicated? Sarah Burger (10:37.71)Well, I mentioned it previously that we had lodged around 20 criminal complaints at the University of Fort Hare. That sort of evidence that we put together at Horizen - and particularly because we are lawyers as well - was from beginning to end investigation. All that needed or was required was for the police to go and question certain suspects and interview witnesses and take those matters forward. The kind of fraud and corruption investigations that we conducted there were in relation to fraudulent academic degrees, theft of millions of rands by certain professors in that university, from administrators to secretaries sitting with millions of rands in their bank accounts, from siphoning funds out, primarily from a supply chain management point of view where they were submitting three fraudulent quotes and this user, the secretary or administrator would be authorising the cheapest quotation and receiving kickbacks from suppliers. The evidence of that has been provided over numerous years to law enforcement in the Eastern Cape, as well as the NPA and the Special Investigating Unit. Those matters, which I believe are trial ready, none of them have moved apart from one, one that was lodged in 2019 where one arrest was affected and a civil case has already disgorged those profits from that business and former staff member. So it is with great sadness that those matters just stand still. And when you think about it in the context of the way we were arrested, the case was opened against us in January and we were arrested in March. When you consider it in a timeline of matters that were lodged in 2019, 2020, 2021, two, three, four, and nothing has happened to those people, one has to wonder what the heck is going on here. But yeah. Chris Steyn (12:43.255) Nothing happened to them yet you had to fight your way out of a dock. But you have done so successfully after one hell of a fight. That was Sarah Burger, Forensics Attorney, speaking to BizNews, and I'm Chris Steyn.

Sarah Burger: Corruption-busting attorney vindicated after 17-month-long fight

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