Scam Empire Part One: Inside the dark heart of a multinational investment scam

Dewald van Rensburg and OCCRP

5 March, 2025

A little-known Bulgarian entrepreneur named Boris Kodzhov has, since 2023, quietly made mammoth strides in the South African fintech sector.

#TheLaundry: the bullshit artist, the fuel traders and the Hong Kong front army

Dewald van Rensburg

16 February, 2025

On 16 October 2020 André Malherbe, an investigator at the South African Reserve Bank’s Financial Surveillance Department, got a phone call from one of the country’s best known alleged money launderers.

Trouble for Mazars over failed PetroSA deals

Susan Comrie

9 February, 2025

Mazars’ due diligence helped to green light three scandal-plagued deals between PetroSA, Russia’s Gazprombank Africa and notorious wheeler dealer Lawrence Mulaudzi.

Inside the PwC report: What really brought Steinhoff to its knees

Rob Rose for Currency, Financial Mail and amaBhungane

6 February, 2025

It is late November 2017 and Steinhoff, already Europe’s second-largest furniture retailer after Ikea, is scrambling to convince its auditor Deloitte to sign off its accounts for the year to September, due to be published a week later, on December.

IDT contractor embroiled in Health DG bribe allegations won highly suspect tender, new evidence shows

Azarrah Karrim

5 February, 2025

A trove of documents obtained by amaBhungane show how the Independent Development Trust (IDT) appointed a contractor embroiled in bribery allegations involving director general of the Department of Health Dr Sandile Buthelezi, despite obvious warning signs in the procurement process.

PetroSA’s deal with Russia implodes

Susan Comrie

22 January, 2025

It was Cabinet – not PetroSA – who announced, in December 2023, that Russia’s Gazprombank had been selected to restart Mossel Bay’s gas-to-liquids refinery.

NPA in crisis: Andrea Johnson’s unguided missile

Graeme Hosken and Sam Sole | AmaBhungane Managing Partner

20 January, 2025

Meet Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, the well-connected military contractor and prosecution witness who was primed to nail a big fish: Parliamentary Speaker and former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

Damning affidavit, if true, exposes the banality of former Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s alleged corruption.

Graeme Hosken and Sam Sole | AmaBhungane Managing Partner

Former defence minister and Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is back in court today for an application by her lawyers to try to force the disclosure of parts of the prosecution docket the State says are confidential.

Inside job: the rise and fall of the woman who brought down Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

Graeme Hosken

19 January, 2025

Be sure to also read part two of this story, as well as our in-depth analysis.

Joburg awards R263-million water tanker tender to two 20-somethings

Buyeleni Sibanyoni

22 December, 2024

With the city in the grip of a crippling water crisis, Johannesburg Water has awarded a questionable R263-million contract to supply water tankers to two obscure companies, both owned and run by directors from the Eastern Cape in their 20s.

Outdated reliance on sub judice hinders the constitutional imperative of transparency

Caroline James

As an investigative journalism unit, a core part of our task involves sending questions to various entities.

#TheLaundry: Sasfin Bank’s snake pit

Dewald van Rensburg

19 December, 2024

This year, Sasfin Bank seemingly declared defeat after a series of scandalous revelations about the deep rot in its foreign exchange business.