Grants for Investigative Reporting

The Henry Nxumalo Foundation gives grants to individuals and organisations to produce public interest investigative journalism of relevance to contemporary Southern Africa. We enable journalists to have the time and resources to undertake reporting that might not otherwise be done, and to encourage coverage on neglected areas of Southern African society.

We operate two specialist non-profit virtual newsrooms to address areas of our society that need urgent attention: Our City News focuses on Johannesburg; and The Education Desk probes the challenges facing our schooling system.

Our Latest Stories

March and March supporters demonstrate in Johannesburg on 30 June 2026. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee, GroundUp)

Migrant crackdown raises concerns over state’s role in growing anti-immigrant pressure

Lucas Nowicki 16 September 2026

XenoBarometer tracks the anti-immigrant movement and its impact. We aim to surface underreported stories, paying close attention to potential rights abuses, emerging patterns in anti-immigrant mobilisation and failures in government’s response. This is a project of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation and Viewfinder, publishing every Tuesday in partnership with Daily Maverick.

Hive Ecosystems director Japie Buckle is a seasoned restoration ecologist. Here, he explains how goat browsing strips the lower branches of trees in Albany thickets, leaving artificial, mushroom-shaped canopies above and stripped-away topsoil below. Picture: Leonie Joubert.

The new gold rush (Pt 3/3): Big promises, closed books in new carbon frontier

Leonie Joubert 5 September 2026

The drought-adapted succulent spekboom, the crown prince of South Africa’s nature-based carbon sink solutions,is being dominated by huge multinational companies whose promises are hard to scrutinize.

The number of cuttings this Hive Ecosystem team manages to plant in a day is dizzying. This project is halfway toward its original goal of planting spekboom across nearly 5,500 hectares (nearly 13,000 acres). Picture: Leonie Joubert

New gold rush (Pt 2/3): Spekboom restoration speeds up, but it’s a bumpy road

Leonie Joubert 4 September 2026

A unique approach to ecosystem restoration in South Africa — repairing exhausted farmlands through the mass planting of spekboom — is receiving global attention as one new entrant gets an injection of $91 million to dramatically increase its plantings. But our investigation finds that things may be getting off to a rocky start.

These two-decade-old planted spekboom bushes at Cambria on the edge of the Baviaanskloof UNESCO World Heritage Site show the characteristic skirting that creates a nursery environment around their base in which other plants and animals can live. Picture: Leonie Joubert.

A new gold rush (Pt 1/3): Big money, high stakes in spekboom sector

Leonie Joubert 31 August 2026

Parts of the country’s farmland are badly in need of restoration. Until now, spekboom restoration projects have been artisanal, but suddenly they are industrial in scale and tech giant Amazon is throwing its hat into the ring. (First in a three-part story)

Facebook, Instagram fail to moderate homophobic hate speech in Zimbabwe

Lungelo Ndhlovu 25 August 2026

Ronald Madongwe waits for a taxi to take him to church in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 09 August 2026. Photo: Aaron Ufumeli/ SA|AJP In 2022, Ronald Madongwe, an openly queer Zimbabwean pastor preaching for acceptance of the LGBTQI+ community in a country where homosexuality is outlawed, stumbled across a picture of himself on Facebook alongside a post…

Empty water containers in the street tell the story of Siyanqoba’s ongoing water crisis in Emalahleni Local Municipality. Photograph: Rodney Hlatshwayo

When emergency water becomes permanent

Rodney Hlatswayo 17 August 2026

A weeks-long investigation into water tanker procurement and service delivery in Mpumalanga’s Nkangala District reveals what happens when a temporary emergency measure becomes a long-term way of supplying water.

Eswatini Medical Christian University, under investigation for corruption and lapses in governance. Photo: Eswatini Observer

MPs take money from varsity they are investigating for corruption

Sibusiso Dlamini 10 August 2026

Five of seven MPs investigating the Eswatini Medical Christian University for corruption and governance failures accepted payments from the university while their inquiry was underway.

A worker pours chicken feed for one-week-old chicks at a poultry farm just outside Harare, Zimbabwe. Photography by Aaron Ufumeli/SAAJP

Zim farmers feed ARVs to chickens in bid to boost growth and profits, say insiders

Dalphine Tagwireyi 29 July 2026

Zimbabwean chicken farmers regularly buy antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), intended for HIV patients in the country, on the black market to mix into chicken feed.

Residents of Ethekwini Ward 105 wash clothes in the stream where the surrounding community get their drinking water. Photograph Rogan Ward / SA I AJP

Six years later, rural eThekwini residents lament broken water supply

Zinhle Cebekhulu 21 July 2026

For residents in eThekwini’s Ward 105, every sunrise begins with the same painful routine. Instead of turning on a tap, they pick up buckets and walk long distances to collect water from streams shared with cattle, goats, and dogs. The community has not had a reliable supply of water since 2020.

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

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