Michael Marchant

There is so much dirty money in South African property. Next week, we show how real estate agents and lawyers often enable this by looking the other way and not conducting the due diligence required by our law.

Eskom Holdings SOC Limited and Another v AfriForum NPC (1049/2024) [2026] ZASCA 34 (23 March 2026) Today, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed an appeal against a decision of the Gauteng Division of the High Court.

📢 Open Secrets is looking for a new campaigner! Are you an advocate for social justice, accountability and transparency? Are you keen to work with a small team of investigators and civil society activists? APPLY HERE: form.jotform.com/Open_Secrets/c…

an incredible story by @OpenSecretsZA's investigator @raediology, published by @dailymaverick detailing how estate agents Pam Golding & Apple Creek & law firm Jouberts Attorneys blatantly facilitated money laundering for political exposed Mozambicans. dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0…

Pam Golding faces fallout over management of millions, bribes paid to former president's son dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0…

Pam Golding faces fallout over management of millions, bribes paid to former president's son dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0…

Absolute cracker of a read ⁦@dailymaverick⁩ this morning!

@OpenSecretsZA released an analysis of private healthcare as part of its 'Who Owns South Africa' series last year. It discusses the relentless financialisation of healthcare here and around the world. Shareholders always trump care. opensecrets.org.za/investigation-…

Discovery Health generated more than R4 billion in profit for the group last year, and the group hiked dividends, paying out millions to shareholders. But not paying for care is "not about the money". @ermbates skepticism is spot on here.

#SONA2026 had more roadblocks than Eskom has stages 🚧 Anyway… we made it. New season loading. 👀🎥

Morgan McSweeney – who just quit as Downing Street chief of staff over his role in the Mandelson scandal – was one of the most powerful figures in Starmer's Labour. But who really is he? We asked investigative journalist Paul Holden back in November. Holden has a personal connection to this story. On Friday, it emerged that McSweeney's thinktank Labour Together paid a PR firm to investigate several journalists looking into its finances, including Holden. Watch the full episode of Downstream on our YouTube channel.

The R370 SRD grant, which goes to around 8 million people, is less than 44% of the food poverty line. @StatsSA has just published updated poverty line figures for 2025. The latest Food Poverty Line (FPL) is now R855 per person per month. The SRD Grant, which is supposed to provide social assistance to adults who can't support themselves or their families (as per S27 of the Constitution), still sits at R370 p/m. This means that the grant is 43,3% of the FPL, therefore can't provide basic nutrition for one person, and its real value has steadily decreased since it was introduced in 2020. This is one of the matters that will come up in the state's appeal on the SRD Grant judgment that will be heard later this year.

This is one of the most extraordinary and illuminating passages in all journalism. CNN frames Maduro as a paranoid liar for claiming the CIA is trying to overthrow him. Yet in the very next sentence, it casually notes that the CIA did, in fact, overthrow him. The level of cognitive dissonance and imperial brain rot you must have to write this, and then have it read by an editor and published, is truly breathtaking.

@groundup Read the GroundUp article here: groundup.org.za/article/ethics…

Open Secrets welcomes the @GroundUp publication today of an investigation that private interests attempted to gag. This is a victory for media freedom and the public’s right to know. Gag orders are a tool used by the powerful to silence journalism exposing wrongdoing.

The arms trade thrives in the shadows — and corruption is the cover. Explore the Arms Trade Corruption Tracker @ArmsTradeCT: a free public database documenting 63 cases across 66 countries and 86 companies. youtu.be/dEiMl62IBHo?si…

An empty and cowardly statement from an empty and cowardly man

Nedbank has agreed to pay R600-million to Transnet to settle a court case over the bank’s State Capture-era deals and its inappropriate, seven-year relationship with Regiments Capital. But Transnet wasn’t the first stop: our 2021 investigation – backed by hundreds of emails and documents–traced Nedbank and Regiments’ dirty journey through City of Joburg, City of Tshwane and Acsa before they finally arrived at Transnet’s head office at the Carlton Centre. At most SOEs, the modus operandi was the same: Regiments would get appointed as an advisor, then advise the SOE to enter into a series of often unnecessary interest rate swaps on its loans, which would generate huge fees for the banks who agreed to act as counterparty. Regiments would collect both its advisory fee and, secretly, an introduction fee or commission from the bank. But these deals were high risk – that, famously called derivatives “financial weapons of mass destruction” – as Regiments’ clients soon discovered. In 2012, Acsa paid almost a billion rand to unwind two interest rate swaps Regiments had advised it to take. Acsa, which runs South Africa’s airports, was forced to pay R494-million to Nedbank and R425-million to Standard Bank to undo the damage Regiments had caused.

@amaBhungane So @Nedbank nothing to see here? Just R600m in hush-money, but no wrong-doing? And the executives who presided over this travesty just continue to enjoy their profits and perks. Just another set of smug Sandton cowboys. Pathetic.

CLIMATE ARTICLE RELEASE: Who benefits off the renewable industry and at what cost? Abby May and Zen Mathe take a deep dive into the energy landscape and the potential replication of existing inequities from the fossil fuel industry. READ NOW: dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-1…

BREAKING: Open Secrets can reveal this after a 3-week ICP gag order: UAE “Made in Emirates” armoured vehicles may be South African designs, built by SA staff with SA parts — even as the UAE backs factions in Sudan’s genocide. 🚨 READ HERE: dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-1…