Grants for Investigative Reporting

The Henry Nxumalo Fund gives grants to individuals and organisations to do investigative journalism of relevance to contemporary Southern Africa. We enable journalists to have the time and resources to do reporting that might not otherwise be done, and to encourage reporting on under-covered areas of Southern African society.

Our Latest Stories

Volunteer of the Environmental Management Agency in a clean-up exercise in Harare's central business district. Photograph Aaron Ufumeli / SA I AJP

Plastic regulations flouted as Zimbabwe’s crisis deepens

Macdonald Mudzaki 9 July 2026

Zimbabwe has had laws banning thin plastic packaging and polystyrene containers since 2010, but plastic waste has grown by 50,000 tonnes in that time. Macdonald Mudzaki investigates.

If Sizeni Dlamini makes R300 from a day’s trade in second hand clothing and shoes, she’ll dip into it to buy basic groceries A bit more, and she’ll add a few more things to the food basket on her way home. More still, and she’ll replenish her business's stock. Picture: Leonie Joubert

Cooked: the life of informal traders in a heating world

Leonie Joubert 19 June 2026

Roadside traders in Durban’s inner city work in sweltering boiler room conditions. Taking a break in the heat of the day means they are also taking a break in their earnings. Solutions remain largely in policy documents, not tangible actions.

Streetview of Vanderbijl Park. Pic: Nathalie Bertrams

What Remains of South Africa’s Industrial Dream

Tristen Taylor and Nathalie Bertrams 4 June 2026

In the Vaal Triangle, built on steel and cheap power, communities are navigating the long-term effects of factory closures and failing infrastructure

An artisanal small scale gold miner sieves for gold using mercury on the banks of the Mutare River, Penhalonga, Zimbabwe. Exposure to mercury can damage lungs, the kidneys and the skin Tatenda Chitagu/SAAJP

Zimbabwe’s gold boom relies on mercury pollution. Government turns a blind eye

Tatenda Chitagu 4 June 2026

Despite the government of Zimbabwe’s on-paper commitment to reduce and regulate the use of mercury in mining, the toxic metal remains pervasive and unfettered in the country’s artisanal gold mining sector.

Jackson James appears alongside co-accused Sivuyile Gqabati in the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court. They were arrested in Gqeberha on 27 March in connection with the alleged theft of ﬁrearms from a municipal facility, with a third suspect still at large. James faces charges of housebreaking, theft, and the unlawful possession of 17 ﬁrearms and more than 500 rounds of ammunition. Pic: Catherine White

Under ﬁre: The security failures that feed guns to criminal gangs

Catherine White 25 May 2026

An investigation into the theft of 17 ﬁrearms from a government building in Humansdorp exposes critical security failures and a wider pattern of state weapons slipping into criminal circulation across South Africa, writes Catherine White.

Three learners outside the chemical toilets at Dzivhani Primary School in Thohoyandou, Limpopo. Photograph: Chris Gilili

Scholars still have to deal with bad sanitation

Chris Gilili 22 May 2026

While there has been progress in getting rid of pit latrines in schools, many still have poor sanitation. CHRIS GILILI took a close look at why progress is so slow at the schools of Limpopo.

An image supplied by Letšeng Diamond Mine shows a Caterpillar haul truck, one of the workhorses of large-scale open pit mining, at the mine Mokhotlong, Lesotho.

A decade of broken promises: the death of Lesotho’s ambition to capture its diamond wealth

Kananelo Boloetse and Bereng Mpaki 19 May 2026

Lesotho’s government has given little clarity on why it has stalled and rolled back on projects intended to ensure more of the country’s diamond wealth is captured and retained domestically.

Zanu-PF supporters checking their names in the Mozambican elections before voting at Rodger Howman Vocational College, Zimbabwe October 9, 2024. Nyasha Mariga/SAAJP

Voter rolls confirm Zanu-PF fraud in Mozambique election

Garikai Mafirakureva 7 May 2026

Official voter rolls from the 2024 Mozambican elections contain the names of Zanu-PF activists and a number of Zimbabweans who do not hold Mozambican citizenship, and who had no legal right to vote in that country’s election.

Individuals being attended to at the Civil Registry Office, Bilene district, Gaza provínce, Mozambique. Jaime Munjovo/SAAJP

Mozambique official accuses colleagues in identity fraud racket

Jaime Munjovo 23 April 2026

A government official in the Civil Registry office at Bilene, in Mozambique’s Gaza Province, has blown the whistle on what he says is a criminal network inside his agency. His corrupt colleagues, he says, take bribes to issue false birth certificates and identity documents to foreigners.

Nkosi Sonjica has a permit to catch fish here as his lineage has for generations. He also ferries tourists across the Mtentu River mouth. Picture: LEONIE JOUBERT

Wild Coast’s amaMpondo want greater part in management of ancestral lands

Leonie Joubert 23 April 2026

South Africa’s newly minted RAMSAR wetland on the Wild Coast shows that the notion of development is contested territory. The story of a Pondoland fisherman shows that while the bull elephants tussle, it’s the grass that gets trampled.

The government’s build-back-better approach to disaster relief is to provide building materials that are intended to be temporary. But homes in informal settlements are anything but short-lived. Pic: Leonie Joubert

The fourth horseman: extreme heat, a killer in informal settlements

Leonie Joubert 22 April 2026

Of the disasters that sweep through the Dakota informal settlement in south Durban, fire is feared most. Flood is the great leveller on lower ground. Wind gnaws at exposed homes. Heat, though, is stealthy and lethal. Research from this muggy East Coast neighbourhood shows how hellish shack life can be when temperature and humidity spike.

1. The cone pine (Pinus pianister) is one of the most aggressive invaders in the Western Cape. Photo: Supplied

Government funding is the final hurdle to unleash the weevil to control pine weeds

Leonie Joubert 13 April 2026

Of the disasters that sweep through the Dakota informal settlement in south Durban, fire is feared most. Flood is the great leveller on lower ground. Wind gnaws at exposed homes. Heat, though, is stealthy and lethal. In this muggy East Coast neighbourhood we see how hellish shack life can be when temperature and humidity spike.

Open call for pitches

Our Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP) invites journalists from select Southern African countries to submit pitches for investigative stories that seek to expose wrongdoing, abuses of power, or failures of accountability. Successful applicants will receive a grant totalling USD1,500.00. Pitches may be submitted at any time until the end of August 2026.

Call for proposals

The new Public Service Amendment Act addresses a critical flaw in our state administration. During the democratic transition the line between elected leaders and public servants was blurred, for various historical reasons. The new Act draws a clear distinction between those who decide what the government must do and those who are entrusted to decide how to carry it out and who must do it. This raises many critical issues. Does the Act address the causes and effects of state capture? Will it help in repairing the damage. Will it establish a solid, stable, professional public service? What impact will it have on the workings of our state? And on the lives of public servants? And the public? We are offering grants to journalists to investigate and do in-depth reporting on issues, problems and solutions in South Africa’s public service. Find out more

We’re hiring journalists

The Education Desk will be an independent virtual newsroom hosted by the Henry Nxumalo Foundation. The Desk will be journalist-led, solution-driven and dedicated to indepth, quality journalism. We will publish through a wide range of established outlets, as well as on our own platforms. We call on qualified journalists who believe in integrity, transparency and active citizenship to apply to join this team. If you’re driven by the idea of making real change in our country’s education system and participating in an exciting and innovative media venture, and have the skills to back it up, we want to hear from you.

Our City News

We have launched Our City News, a bold new initiative to put the spotlight on the City of Johannesburg. Our team of journalists will be probing what is going wrong with the city, what is going right, and what this means for its citizens. We will hold the municipal authorities to account and put the voices of Joburgers front and centre. Our reports are published in mainstream outlets and directly through a newsletter, website and social media. Our City News is a pop-up, virtual, single-issue newsroom. It will be part of the push to make Joburg serve all its citizens.

Reproducing Our Stories: We welcome the republication of our stories in the interest of wider public access to quality journalism. If you are interested in republishing any of our work, please contact us in advance to request permission.

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Support the best accountability journalism. All donations go to the journalists doing the work. All are tax deductable.

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www.presscouncil.org.za or email khanyim@ombudsman.org.za.