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| Motto | Digging dung, fertilising democracy  |
|---|---|
| Established | 2010 (15 years ago) |
| Founders | Sam Sole, Stefaans Brümmer |
| Types | nonprofit organization |
| Country | South Africa |
| Budget | R9.7 million |
| Website | amabhungane |
AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism is an investigative journalism organisation focusing primarily on exposing political corruption inSouth Africa and neighbouring countries. They say that their name means “dung beetles” inisiZulu, one of the indigenous languages of South Africa.[1] They claim they are “digging dung, fertilising democracy.”[2]
Their “#GuptaLeaks” investigations have produced many stories over the years that exposed substantive political corruption in the South African government, recognised by several prestigious awards for investigative journalism. These reports suggested that theGupta family had”captured the state” through their friendship with then-PresidentJacob Zuma and seem to have contributed to 2016 electoral defeats by the ANC in South Africa's largest cities, the defeat of Zuma as president of theAfrican National Congress on 18 December 2017, and then to Zuma's resignation as head of state on 14 February 2018.[3] They've also contributed to theParadise Papers exposé[4] and many other reports relating to the South African political economy.
In 2012 the founder and managing partner of amaBhungane, Sam Sole, was named in a document of the private intelligence firmStratfor as one of their sources in South Africa. The spreadsheet was leaked as part of theWikileaks Global Intelligence Files. Sole never publicly commented on the leak but his editor Nic Dawes, who was also named as having met Stratfor analyst Mark Schroeder, denied that the newspaperMail and Guardian had 'made a deal' with Stratfor and that Sole "met Mr Schroeder briefly at a public debate in Pietermaritzburg July 2008 and has had no further contact with him".[5]
Their budget for two representative years is summarised in the following table.
| year | Rand (millions) | US$ (millions)[6] | US$ per capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 9.7[7] | 0.59 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 7.4[8] | 0.56 | 0.01 |
As of 2022 the non-executive board members of amaBhungane were Tawana Kupe, Sithembile Mbete, Sisonke Msimang, Angela Quintal and Nicholas Dawes.[9]
The following include only a few of the awards presented to amaBhungane and members of their team:
