South Africa’s bad bet

Dewald van Rensburg

4 July, 2025

Rocketing online gambling has become a major source of extraction from the South African economy, riding on regulatory failure, cynical business practices and paid-for influence to profit off a mammoth new social ill.

Ties that bind: Inside Mashatile’s inner circle behind SA’s new lottery operator

Azarrah Karrim

28 June, 2025

A cache of pictures and video shows the cozy ties between Deputy President Paul Mashatile and the inner circle behind the new lottery operator, Sizekhaya Holdings.

Lottery Jackpot: Mashatile’s family tied to new multi-billion-rand operator deal 

Azarrah Karrim

23 June, 2025

Sizekhaya Holdings, which landed the lucrative licence to operate South Africa’s national lottery for eight years, has links to Deputy President Paul Mashatile.

Who got to go to Paris with Paul? Water tanker tenderpreneur joined Deputy President Mashatile’s France-SA business entourage 

AmaBhungane reporters

19 June, 2025

In May, a South African delegation led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile travelled to Paris for the South Africa-France Investment Conference.

Dirty Fuels Part 2: PetroSA’s R11-billion ‘contaminated’ petrol deal

Susan Comrie

8 June, 2025

In December 2023, TotalEnergies started to notice that something was off with a new kind of unleaded petrol that it was selling in the Garden Route.

IDT MISTRUST | Part 2: Minister Zikalala’s ‘whitewash’ that secured IDT CEO Malaka her job

Azarrah Karrim

31 May, 2025

Former public works minister Sihle Zikalala lowballed the findings of an investigation he had commissioned, paving the way for Tebogo Malaka’s appointment as chief executive of the Independent Development Trust (IDT) despite her involvement in a R45-million lease scandal.

IDT MISTRUST | Part 1: How minister Zikalala and his ‘comrade chair’ Mshengu nixed probes into CEO Malaka

Azarrah Karrim

30 May, 2025

Documents obtained by amaBhungane suggest that former public works and infrastructure minister Sihle Zikalala and his close comrade, then-Independent Development Trust (IDT) chair advocate Kwazi Mshengu, mounted parallel efforts to shield the parastatal’s chief executive from investigations into a R45-million.

Dirty fuels: Inside PetroSA’s shambolic diesel trading empire

Susan Comrie

27 May, 2025

In May last year, two oil tankers set sail for South Africa, each carrying $35-million (R650-million) worth of diesel.

Advocacy: Deals done in secret, the PetroSA way, are bad business

Caroline James

Our latest investigative piece detailed the scarcely believable story of how PetroSA effectively gave a little-known company a R933-million cargo of diesel with no contract and no guarantee it would be paid.

Suspected crime boss Stanfield’s wife spends R5-million on Sea Point flat while in prison

Graeme Hosken

18 May, 2025

Nicole Johnson, wife of suspected organised crime boss Ralph Stanfield and herself accused of racketeering and helping run a violent criminal enterprise, bought an unbonded R5-million flat on the Atlantic Seaboard from a renowned Cape Town property developer.

Iqbal called us racist, but this is why we’re rushing to his defence

Caroline James

3 May, 2025

There are few people who hate us more than Iqbal Survé, the chairperson of Independent Media.

Analysis: has the South African Reserve Bank gone rogue?

Sam Sole | AmaBhungane Managing Partner

2 May, 2025

An extraordinary multi-billion-rand battle is raging between the South African Reserve Bank and the surviving rump of the Steinhoff group, now named Ibex.