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

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

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.

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

Limpopo 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.

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