Sam has been a journalist since 1986. He has worked for the investigative
magazine Noseweek, served as political editor of the Sunday Tribune, and
joined the Mail & Guardian as investigative journalist in 2002.
In 2003, he won the Vodacom Journalist of the Year award for first reporting
the criminal investigation of then deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Together with amaBhungane co-founder Stefaans Brümmer, he has received
numerous journalism awards, including for their Oilgate exposés that traced
the involvement of an ANC-linked company in diverting money from a state
contract to the coffers of the ruling party.
Sam was instrumental in revealing the links between former police
commissioner Jackie Selebi, slain mining magnate Brett Kebble and various
figures from South Africa’s underworld.
Together with Stefaans and Adriaan Basson, Sam won the Taco Kuiper Award
for Investigative Journalism in 2009 for their sustained investigation of the
notorious South African arms deal.
Sam co-founded amaBhungane in 2010. Since then, he has been at the
forefront of exposing the genesis, progress and ongoing damage wrought by
State Capture – the assault on democratic institutions launched under the
leadership of Jacob Zuma.
Sam describes himself as a veteran investigative journalist, a proud street
lawyer, a frustrated cop and, aspirationally, a scourge of crooked accountants,
lawyers, consultants and other “thugs in suits”.
He now leads amaBhungane into a new era of global uncertainty, social stress
and environmental breakdown – which makes our core project to promote
transparency, accountability and better governance even more critical.
