Stefaans Brummer
Stefaans is an old hand at investigations. A politics and journalism graduate, he cut his reporting teeth at the Cape Argus in the tumultuous early 1990s; then joined the Mail & Guardian as democracy dawned in April 1994. For the next 16 years a late-1990s diversion into television and freelancing apart, the M&G was his journalistic home and launch pad for award-winning investigations focusing on the nexus between politics and money. Stefaans has co-authored exposés including Oilgate, the Selebi affair, Chancellor House and significant breaks in the arms deal scandal. Stefaans and Sam Sole co-founded amaBhungane in 2010. He divides his time between the demands of media bureaucracy which he detests, coaching members of the amaBhungane team, and his first love, digging for dung.
Killer mayor still receives a salary
/ 14 September 2012

Killer mayor still receives a salary

Former Rustenburg mayor Matthew Wolmarans, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for murdering a corruption whistle-blower, is still being paid a salary by the Rustenburg municipality. This was confirmed by the current mayor, Mpho Khunou. The Mail & Guardian has established that although Wolmarans stepped down as mayor, his contract as council speaker is […]

Mugabe man cashes in on diamond fields
/ 7 September 2012

Mugabe man cashes in on diamond fields

Mega-rich Zimbabwean businessman Robert Mhlanga stands at the centre of an opaque network of companies set up to cash in on the Marange diamond fields with the help of the Zimbabwe government. Mhlanga, a retired air vice-marshall, is widely regarded as a close associate of President Robert Mugabe and a business representative of the Mugabe […]

Limpopo hospitals in dire state
/ 31 August 2012

Limpopo hospitals in dire state

Premature babies swaddled in plastic wrap, rotting limbs and the reuse of discarded medical items — these are some of the scenarios recounted to the Mail & Guardian during a tour of public hospitals in Limpopo last month. The radiology departments of some hospitals are not functioning, which means doctors cannot perform orthopaedic surgery. In […]

Suspicion circles Israeli diamond maven who ‘understands negroes’
/ 24 August 2012

Suspicion circles Israeli diamond maven who ‘understands negroes’

“Yossi, you don’t get it. I understand the politics of negroes.” Thus, Dan Gertler once bragged of his talent for cutting audacious deals with the Congolese government. Recorded in about 2000, the revealing slur was made during the early days of the Israeli diamond ­scion’s ambitious Democratic Republic of Congo venture. (See also: “Sexwale’s claims […]