The Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP) is a new project to support and strengthen investigative journalism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). SA | AJP will provide journalists with reporting grants and editorial support to produce investigative stories which seek to advance the public interest in the region. Journalists are invited to submit pitches for the first round of this project by 24 January 2025. Yet, pitches will be adjudicated as they are received and can be submitted at any time.
Call for Pitches for Investigative Stories
Call for Pitches for Botswana
RESEARCH: The state of freelance journalism
Working conditions for South Africa’s freelance journalists are difficult and their compensation is appalling and inadequate, a research report has concluded. The report was commissioned by the Henry Nxumalo Foundation with Sanef, and written by media academics Sarah Chiumbu and Allen Munoriyarwa. It is titled The state of freelance journalists in South Africa.
NEWS FROM OUR GRANTEES
Latest:
Vicky Abraham and Ntokozo Abraham exposed the shocking neglect of a school for the disabled in Limpopo – and drew an immediate response from the authorities. She reported it in the Sunday Times, Rapport/Netwerk24 and Diary Series of Deaf People. The authorities quick reaction (after eight years of inactivity) was reported in the Sunday Times. ALSO: The power of investigative reporting: a case study
Estacio Valoi braved the insurgency-threatened north to investigate government complicity with the Chinese in illegal logging.
Tabelo Timse, Kyle Findlay and Aldu Cornelissen’s in-depth look at the “influence-for-hire” industry’s influence on elections was published in Daily Maverick: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3. Findlay was interviewed about it on Radio 702, Cape Talk and Radio 786 and followed it up with further work in Daily Maverick, “How Russian uses ‘hybrid warfare’ to amplify its narratives in the South African discourse”.
The Henry Nxumalo Fund gives grants to individuals and organisations to do investigative journalism of relevance to contemporary 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 African society.
Photo: Jurgen Schaderberg
Grants are available for journalists seeking pre-publication support for investigative reporting of public interest.
The grants are administered by the Henry Nxumalo Trust in memory of the pioneering investigative reporter Henry Nxumalo.
In 15 years of operation, the Fund has given about 80 grants totalling almost R5-million.