A long standing social and academic debate has been around whether the media holds up the mirror to society or whether society holds up the mirror to the media. AmaBhungane’s tip-offs argue the former.
“Dear Investigations Editor: I am reporting information received from a traumatised eyewitness in the BereaHillbrow area regarding what appears to be an organised human-trafficking operation with possible SAPS involvement”.
This email represents a little piece of a bigger and bleaker picture that we glean from the Amabhungane tip-offs queue: a picture of various social ills, human-rights violations, criminal activities, deeply entrenched corruption, and service delivery failures in South African society.
Most of what makes it to amaBhungane’s tip-offs line is not news that usually makes the headlines. Citizens approach us with their labour dispute issues, schooling complaints and other law-related matters, although there are also many allegations of corruption and fraud in private and governmental organisations.
In the context of South Africa, the marginalisation of citizens is experienced through their political, social and economic life experiences and this is further expressed by the tip-offs that end up in our inbox.
They reflect a litany of broken promises and the desire for those responsible to be held accountable.
AmaBhungane’s tip-offs are illuminating, revealing that citizens recognise the media as instrumental in the protection of democracy and in the creation of a watchful audience to the extent that they are reaching out to the press with different issues that touch on their daily lives.
Unfortunately the stream of legitimate complaints is too large for a very small team like us to deal with in any detail, but they demonstrate the depth of the needs that more journalists and journalism might address – and all of them go into a matrix of information we often draw on months or even years down the line.
Where do the tip-offs end up?
Tip-offs are an integral step of our editorial routine and this year we have (up to early May) received 477 tip-offs in our email and WhatsApp inboxes – so more than 100 per month.
We keep our tip-offs under our hats and they are handled with the utmost confidentiality and sensitivity.
We are more likely to pursue a tip-off if we believe that it is of major public interest and falls within our mandate. We set out to hold power to account, to force into the public domain information about the subversion of institutional independence, corruption, corporate crimes and state capture.
We are also more likely to pursue a tip-off if it includes details of evidence and sources of more information.
As we previously reported, our tip-offs are read, organised in a spreadsheet under a respective theme and are then forwarded to the journalist/s whose focus is on that beat. After being filed and organised, we respond to tipsters, either asking for further information or clarification or we redirect them to an organisation better equipped to assist.
[WATCH] AmaBhungane’s tip-offs: A loud knock on journalism’s door
Sometimes the tip-offs queue reflects the impact of our stories.
Emails from scam victims poured in droves through our tip-offs queue directly into journalist, Dewald van Rensburg’s, inbox after amaBhungane published The Scam Empire – about an online trading scam.
Here’s one example.
“My mom has been swindled out of retirement money by a company called FXSI which comes up in your article.
“I see that Zivalea is a regulated FSP but the workings of FXSI seem to be very dodgy and concerning. I wanted to know if you have any other information on whether this trading platform is a scam. Their compliance department has been very professional but the way the trading account was opened for my elderly mom and the way she was assisted in making these trades is extremely concerning. All the compliance is in order but my 76-year-old mother has no idea what she signed or what they have done here”.
Desperate for help and their monies back, victims sent email proof of complaints and experiences to online trading platforms, law enforcement and journalists.
It showed us that beyond the numbers and details, many people were robbed of their life savings and their hopes.
Some of our most remarkable stories started in our tip-offs inbox
“Late on a Monday afternoon in July last year, an email from a lawyer dropped into our tip-offs queue. A lawyer’s letter never bodes well, but this one was curious”, recalls Susan Comrie.
Comrie adds that, “The letter went on to explain that Equator Holdings, a company that had just been awarded a R20-billion gas infrastructure deal, had been liquidated for failing to pay a R725 000 debt to a soccer player with the Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila Football Club.”
“Perhaps sensing that we’d be completely baffled, the sender had attached the court papers. These are public documents, meaning that any member of the public is entitled to go to court and ask to see the file. But as is so often the case, public records stay buried unless someone shines a light on them”.
The tip-off would lead to one of our most read stories of 2025: Own goal! PetroSA’s multi-billion-rand offshore gas deal thwarted by unpaid soccer player. It would also lay the groundwork for our recent follow-up: Delinquent soccer club boss seeking to revive $1.2bn gas deal with PetroSA.
In similar fashion, our tip-offs queue started us on the road that eventually revealed the workings of Joburg Water’s tanker tender processes: Joburg awards R263-million water tanker tender to two 20-somethings.
“A tipoff came in and the tipster told us that a Johannesburg Water tanker tender had been awarded to two politically-connected companies that did not own their own water tankers and that the bid adjudication process may have been manipulated,” reports journalist Buyeleni Sibanyoni.
“The tipster then provided the tender reference number, and from that one detail, we built our first investigation into the Johannesburg Water tanker tender,” Sibanyoni adds.
That story catapulted a second tip-off.
We learnt from the second tipster that Sibuyile Magingxa, a director of Nutinox which was one of the awarded companies, had travelled to Paris for the SA-France Investment Conference alongside his girlfriend Lesedi Phala, the niece of the late ambassador to France Nathi Mthethwa.
Neither of them appeared on the official delegate list, yet Magingxa had joined Deputy President Mashatile’s business junket: Who got to go to Paris with Paul? Water tanker tenderpreneur joined Deputy President Mashatile’s France-SA business entourage.
Tip-offs are a big part of the work that we do.
It is important to us that tipsters have secure and accessible channels of communication with us, which is why we have a dedicated secure tip-off window on the website – as well as a normal email channel. Remember: a good tip-off is one that includes full information and supporting evidence and the tipster’s contact information in case we need to message back.
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