Bringing transparency, bringing about change.

AmaBhungane’s small team of investigators has forced information into the public domain where there was none. Our investigative stories – exposés on institutional independence being undermined, corruption, corporate malfeasance and “state capture” — have contributed to political and corporate changes that included the resignation of South Africa’s president in February 2018.

We have helped others do and develop investigative journalism by hosting some 80 fellows and presenting numerous workshops. Some of our alumni went on to found centres like ours elsewhere in Southern Africa. We have supported and collaborated with those centres, and scaled up the support by spinning off a separate non-profit, the IJ Hub, which we incubated from 2019 to 30 June 2021.

Our advocacy has secured information flows for journalists and the public at large. We helped found the campaign that stopped the “Secrecy Bill”; secured legislative amendments including to make company ownership transparent; litigated successfully including to preserve the public status of court records and have unduly intrusive state surveillance practices struck down; and improved access-to-information law by exercising it in and out of the courts.