Award-winning journalism: In the first year of our Southern African Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP), three of our journalists have been recognised:
– Yolando Moyo won Female Journalist of the Year in the Zimbabwean National Journalism and Media Awards for her story ‘Police complicity in cross-border cattle rustling’.
– Pamenus Tiso was runner-up as Anti-Corruption Journalist of the Year for his story ‘Where is Zim’s cyanide queen? ‘
– Annie Zulu won the Golden Award Online at the Misa Zambia Platinum and Golden Awards in Zambia for her story about the trafficking of Zambian women to Pakistan.
LATEST
Tshwane cuts services to special needs schools
By Vicky Abraham, Ntokozo Abraham and Adam Oxford
19-10-2025
The future of matriculants at Filadelfia Secondary LSEN School in Soshanguve hangs in the balance after the City of Tshwane cut the school’s water and electricity due to an outstanding municipal debt of R7.1m. There is now uncertainty over whether the matrics will be able to write their first computer applications technology (CAT) exam.
Health certificates for sale at Congo border
By Jérémie Kyaswekera
16-10-2025
At the Kasindi border post between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda a handful of dollar bills is all that it takes to bypass one of the most important health requirements of international travel in the region: proof of yellow fever vaccination. This was confirmed by this reporter’s own experience, and by half a dozen other travellers interviewed for this investigation.
Sand baroness’ unfettered mining highlights crisis on the banks of the Limpopo
By Chris Gilili
18-09-2025
Weeks after the Limpopo High Court ordered her to halt operations in one area, other companies linked to businesswoman and Musina municipal employee Maria Munyai continue to mine sand on a farm abutting the Limpopo River.Munyai ‘s long battle with farm manager Jacque Turner’s is typical of tensions between the province’s farmers and environmentalists, on the one side, and sand mining entrepreneurs on the other.
No indoor toilets for learners with disabilities
By Vicky Abraham and Ntokozo Abraham
21-09-2025
The School Governing Body (SGB) at a makeshift boarding school in Limpopo have re-counted the indignity of pupils with disabilities and staff who despite their dire conditions dwell in dormitories where there are no indoor toilets. the Limpopo Department of Education has neglected its duties to install toilets and decent showers for pupils and the boarding staff.
Eskom responds swiftly to our special schools report
By Ntokozo Abraham, Vicky Abraham and Adam Oxford
21-09-2025
After years of neglect, Eskom and the ministers of basic education and electricity & energy moved swiftly after our report two weeks ago exposed huge and erratic bills crippling schools for deaf and blind pupils. They met the day after publication and announced a programme to review the school accounts and install solar panels.
Bribes for cover: How Zim police take bribes
to allow illegal mining
By FARAI SHAWN MATHIASHE
04-09-2025
We watched as Zimbabwe police collected their regular payment from illegal miners on the Mutare River. After years of such alluvial mining, the downstream waters have become toxic, harming the communities that once relied on them. The government banned this mining last year, but police are turning a blind eye in exchange for bribes.
Huge electricity costs means deaf students have no learning tools
By VICKY ABRAHAM, ADAM OXFORD, NTOKOZO ABRAHAM
07-09-2025
Special schools for deaf and blind students are struggling with massive and rising electricity bills which are chewing up the grants they should be using for basic equipment. Our reporters examined 188 electricity bills from 66 schools to try to understand the erratic charging.
Joburg power crisis — almost 100,000 reported outages in 9 months, 5,126 very serious
By FERIAL HAFFAJEE
15-07-2025
A Johannesburg power data investigation by Daily Maverick has found a total of 97,715 reported power outages in nine months – with more than 5,126 serious enough to take out entire suburbs at once.
City in the dark — Power cuts choke Joburg’s once-vibrant small businesses
BY FERIAL HAFFAJEE
16-07-2025
We collected voices from Johannesburg’s hardest-hit communities where chronic power failures aren’t just an inconvenience — they’re an existential threat to businesses, livelihoods, and public safety. In a big city, big numbers tell the story of struggle. But what do almost 100,000 reported power cuts in nine months really feel like?
Powerless in the city — How Johannesburg’s electricity crisis is breaking its people
BY FERIAL HAFFAJEE
16-07-2025
With almost 100,000 reported outages in nine months, we found tales of generators and grief, diesel or darkness as Joburg residents spoke to us about paying the price of a broken grid. From R40,000 inverters to lighting fires to bathe, Joburgers reveal the extremes they go to amid crumbling municipal infrastructure. These are the testimonies from a city unplugged.
Families seek justice for missing fishermen in Lake Victoria’s forbidden waters
BY DOMINIC ALLEN
25-06-2025
Community activists document at least 30 cases of missing fishermen, while some tell of rangers shooting at them when they enter forbidden areas.
How government botched a crucial school safety project
BY DANEEL KNOETZE AND ADRIAAN CARTUYVELS
25-06-2025
Fewer than one in 10 teachers have been vetted for sex offences more than a year after the deadline.
Questions on Muslim holy water sold in SA
By MAHMOOD SANGLAY AND YASEEN BARDIEN
20-06-2025
We tested the bottled Zamzam water available in SA and found it did not match water from Saudi Arabia.
Revealed: The man who trades in Zambian women
BY ANNE ZULU
21-06-2025
Meet Jam Hussain, who lures women to work in Pakistan as housekeepers under terrible conditions, and often find themselves stuck there, having to enter the sex trade to survive.
Infighting tearing apart Botswana ZCC
BY KENEILWE LEPHOI
20-06-2025
A deep dive into the divisions in the Botswana branch of this church and the accusations flying between the different sects.
Survivor tells how trapped miners ate human flesh and cockroaches to survive
BY NOMAZULU MOYO
19-06-2025
On the eve of the Human Rights Commission hearings into the Stilfontein zama zama tragedy, miners speak out about how they survived when police trapped them underground.
Police complicity in Zim-Botswana cross border cattle rustling
BY YOLANDA MOYO, NKOSANA VUMA, NQOBILE TSHILI , ARNOLD NYAMANDE
19-06-2025
The illicit cattle movement leaves poverty and devastation behind it, as police turn a blind eye.
Poachers partners – when the Kruger park rangers go rogue
BY TULANI NGWENYA
09-06-2025
Insiders describe why, and how, rangers sworn to protect wildlife collude with poaching syndicates slaughtering rhinos.
How to rig your neighbour’s election
BY WALTER MARWIZI AND GARIKAI MAFIRAKUREVA
26-05-2025
In this exclusive exposé, these Zimbabwe reporters registered to vote in the Mozambican elections to show how ZANU-PF was facilitating the rigging of their neighbour’s ballot.
Where is Zim’s Cyanide Queen?
BY PAMENUS TUSO
Zimbabwe’s national police force appears reluctant to pursue Li Song, a Chinese national allegedly at the centre of a poaching network that uses the deadly chemical cyanide to kill animals in the country’s game reserves.
Mthatha High Court officials solicit bribes to do their jobs, investigation reveals
BY RAY HARTLE AND JOHNNIE ISAAC
An investigation by the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project has corroborated allegations of systemic corruption at the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Mthatha.
Open doors: Official complicity in cross-border rhino horn poaching and smuggling
BY OUR REPORTER
Our reporter had an inside view of how border guards are facilitating the smuggling of rhino horn out of South Africa.
Municipalities are taking more water from dams than they are allowed
BY SEAN CHRISTIE
Municipalities consistently take more water from dams than they are allowed, because no-one is monitoring. The consequences are disastrous.
Supermarket guards, truck drivers and ‘very big mistakes’: the failed role of western mercenaries in the fall of Goma
BY ANDREI POPOVICIU, ANA POENARIU, EMMET LIVINGSTONE and MARINE LEDUC
An exposé of the role Rumanian mercenaries are playing in the Congo conflict.
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