Over 80 grants have been made since 2006, totalling nearly R5-m. These have gone to individuals, both employed and freelance, groups of journalists, editors for a newsroom project and for a training project with students. We have contributed to books, stories, series of stories, photographic essays, podcasts, data stories on subjects as wide as crime, corruption, rhino-poaching, the environment, family history, the Marikana massacre and Duncan Village massacre of 1961.
Some of the work support by these grants:
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 coming soon…
Bheki Mashile of the Umjindi-Elukwatini Guardian in Barberton has published his expose of the local construction mafia, showing how brazen their operation is.
Combined Artists produced for MNet’s Carte Blanche an eye-opening piece on kidnapping, including an interview with a perpetrator. Watch it on YouTube.
Greg Arde has published with Amabhungane his major investigations into the construction mafia: Taxi bosses, the construction industry and political murder and Business Against Crime calls for more government transparency in fight against criminal kingpins.
Paul McNally of Develop Audio’s podcast series on assassinations is being rolled out by the Mail & Guardian and is available on Spotify: The Last Afternoon in the Garden.
The Inhlase Centre for Investigative Reporting in Eswatini have published their series on the King’s control of this country’s land and its impact on the people:
TimesLive’s Aron Hyman, Tankiso Makhetha and Graeme Hosken did a four part series On the hunt: Exposing South Africa’s kidnapping kingpins
Theresa Alfaro-Velcamp and Mathew Skade did a two-part series in Daily Maverick, The confusion about kidnapping in SA: The numbers just don’t add up.
Dianne Hawker: How to Steal a Gold Mine: The Aurora Story (NB Publishers, 2023).
Nechama Brodie’s Farm Killings in South Africa (Kwela, 2023).
Bheki Mashile’s land scandal exposé – Umjindi’s modern-day force removals – was published in his online newspaper, Imjindi Guardian, in April 2023.
Jacques Pauw: Our Poisoned Land: Living in the Shadows of Zuma’s Keepers (NB Publishers)
Lucas Ledwaba has published his “A Desire to Return to the Ruins: A look at the contentious issues of land reform and restitution in post-apartheid South Africa”.
Karyn Maughan and Kirsten Pearson (Tafelberg): Nuclear – Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal
Alastair Otter (MediaHack/Outlier): Riot – Eight Days of Protests and Looting that Shook South Africa
Lulu Brenda Harris and Khanyile Mlotshwa (CITE): The day some immigrants joined in the looting in South Africa
In partnership with the Global Alliance Against Transnational Crime (GITOC)
Collins Mtika (Malawi): Malawi’s soaring illegal pangolin trade
Gideon Sarpong (Ghana): Chinese-owned vessels ‘threaten Ghana’s tourism industry’
Djatougbe Aziaka (Togo): Wildlife Trading – The case of Togo
Muhizi Olivier and Kelly Rwamapera (Rwanda): How Ivory is trafficked from Tanzania into Rwanda
Faith Sudi and Donald Magomere (Kenya): Booming Trade in undersized fish threatens Lake Turkana’s future
Ini Ekott (Nigeria): Inside Nigeria’s shocking wildlife crimes and how criminals escape justice
In partnership with the Gates Foundation and the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC)
Thomas Bwire and Ruth Keah (Kenya): Covid Certificate Cartels
MAWA Foundation (Nigeria): How health workers collect bribes, issue Covid-19 certificates without vaccination
Risdel Kasasira (Uganda): Poor mothers bleed to death as unscrupulous health workers sell blood
Madala Thepa (Sunday Independent): Battles at the De Paarl farm experiment in restitution
Sabelo Skiti and Athandiwe Saba (Mail & Guardian): The collapse of the Masters of the Supreme Courts offices.
Daniel Knoetze (Viewfinder): Criminal Cops – an investigation into what lies behind police criminality and lack of accountability
Rehana Rossouw (Jacana): Predator Politics – Mabuza, Freddie Daniels and the Great Land Scandal
Tanya Pampalone, Eliot Moleba, etc (Sound Africa): One Night in Snake Park – An investigation into the killing 2015 killing of 14-year old Siphiwe Mahori in Snake Park, Soweto, which ignited a wave of xenophobic attacks as across South Africa.
Mignonne Breier (Tafelberg): Bloody Sunday – the nun, the defiance campaign and South Africa’s secret massacre
Pieter-Louis Myburgh (Penguin): Gangster State – Unravelling Ace Magashula’s Web of Capture
Christopher Clark (GroundUp): Three-part series on political violence in KZN and the frustrated search for justice.
Association of Independepnt Publishers: Investigation into the Lottery, a collaboration of various outlets coordinated by Ray Joseph
Noseweek: A series on KZN political assassinations by Desiree Erasmus
Jacques Pauw (Tafelberg): The President’s Keepers – Those keeping Zuma in power and out of prison.
Adriaan Basson (News24): Dubai, the Gupta’s city of shells An investigation into the Gupta base in Dubai
Thabo Jijana (daily Dispatch): People cry foul over title deeds
Kimon de Greef (Hakai Magazine): Quick Sand, Dirty Money – Illegal sand mining
Ryan Brown (Bhekisisa): Signed, sealed and delivered – Why abortion-by-mail services are spreading.
Greg Mariovich (Zebra Press): Murder at Small Koppie – The real story of the Marikana Massacre
Sarah Wild and Kirsten van Scie (Mail & Guardian/EuroScientist): Unnamed, unclaimed – South Africa’s unidentified dead. Winner of the AAAS Kavli Science Award Gold.
Laura Grant (Media Hack/TimesLive): A three-part series on asbestos in school buildings
Lukhanyo and Abigail Calato (Tafelbert): My Father Died for This – a story of three generations of struggle.
Leon Sidiki and Lucas Ladwaba (Blackbird Books): Broke & Broken – The shameful legacy of gold mining in SA
Susan Puren: Investigation into a woman committed for 40 years to an asylym for sleeping with a black man
Fiona Forde (Financial Mail): HSBC leaks
Yel Even Or (Tablet): Did an Israeli Company Hack Zimbabwe’s Elections.
Johnathan Ancer (Jacana): Spy – Uncovering Craig Williamson
Lloyd Gedye (The Con): Investigation into conscrution company collusion
Stephan Hofstatter and James Oatway (Sunday Times): SA at war in the DRC
Fred Kockott (Roving Reporters/Sunday Tribune): Fred worked with student interns on a series of local investigative stories.
Santiago Villa: An investigation into Glencore
Tanya Farber (Cape Times): Corrective Rape – a Perpetrator and a Survivor
Alex Eliseev (Pan Macmillan): Cold Case Confession – Unravelling the Betty Ketani Murder
Julian Rademeyer (Zebra Press): Kiling for Profit – Exposnig the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade
Jacques Pauw (Zebra Press): Rat Roads – One man’s incredible journey
Wanjahi Kbukuru: SA Interests in Southern Sudan
Bheki Mashile (Umjindi Guardian): Badplaas Trust Illegal
David Fig: The controversy around hydraulic fracking
Salym Fahad: Jumping the Border – Smugglers and gangs on the Zimbwean border
Alon Skuy: Sex and Trade in the City’s Underbelly (A photographic project)
Bheki Mashile (Umjindi Guardian): The defrauding of intestate wills in Mpumalanga
Sanaa Peterson: Miling the Victims of Xenophobic attacks
David Beresford (Jacana): The Truth is a Strange Fruit – a personal journey through the apartheid war
Clifford Otiena: Power battles in the SANDF
Anthony Altbekker: Fruit of a Poisoned Tree
In the news:
Click on the newspapers below to read the articles.
Videos
Wildlife Trading – The case of Togo
Thomas Bwire and Ruth Keah (Kenya): Covid Certificate Cartels