The Fund was set up in 2006 as the Taco Kuiper Fund, with the support of the Valley Trust. In 2019, it was renamed the Henry Nxumalo Fund after the legendary and courageous South African journalist who did groundbreaking undercover exposés for Drum Magazine in the 1950s, and was killed while doing his work. In 2021, it became an independent non-profit company working. The Fund was originally focused on Southern Africa, but now makes occasional calls for grant applications that cover multiple African countries.
Directors/Trustees
Anton Harber is the founder and chair of the Fund’s board. Harber is Caxton Professor of Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand and a board member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism. He has been a journalist for 40 years, was a founding editor of the Mail & Guardian and editor-in-chief of television channel eNCA. He was an executive director of Kagiso Media and CEO of Kagiso Broadcasting. His latest book is So, for the record: Behind the headlines in an era of state capture.
Thabo Leshilo is Politics and Society editor at The Conversation Africa. He is a journalist and editor with 30 years of experience. He is a former editor of Pretoria News, Sowetan, Sunday World and Business Times. He has been a political reporter and news editor and has written extensively on events in South Africa as a reporter, features writer, and columnist. Leshilo’s main areas of interest are human rights, politics and social justice.
Leshilo has also worked as a communications strategist. Leshilo is a past winner of the Sanlam Business Journalist of the Year Award (small business section). He is a former Nieman Fellow in journalism at Harvard University (2008/2009). He holds a Masters degree in Applied Ethics from Wits University, a B. Admin degree with majors in Public Administration, International Relations and Political Development from the University of Limpopo.
Josephine Norma Norward’s career in social work began in South Africa after completing her undergraduate social work training at the University of Zululand. Following graduation, she worked as a social worker in Soweto and later left the country to study in the United States. She earned a master’s in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph. D. from Clark Atlanta University, Georgia. She settled in the US and built a career in academia teaching at the University of Tampa in Florida and at Kean University, New Jersey. In the 35 years in academia, she held various responsibilities as a teacher/mentor, MSW program chair, BSW program Chair, Interim field director for a BSW and MSW program, and faculty field liaison. In addition to teaching, she worked as a school social worker, a consultant for a Catholic Charities agency, a Black Adoption Consortium, a school-based agency, and a Youth Service Agency. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers and a licensed social worker. Before her retirement in 2022, she was the Coordinator of the MSW program’s student outcome assessment. Currently, she serves as a Contributing Faculty member in the School of Social Work, at Walden University. She co-produced an interdisciplinary documentary on investigative journalism in South Africa in the 1950s. The film was selected as a finalist at the World Film Festival in 2017, with screenings in the US and Africa. Her book, Honoring My Village, was published on October 26, 2023. Olympia Publishers: London.
Partners
