Following the money when nobody wants you to: jumping through hoops with amaBhungane

Facing a lack of resources and media silencing, exposing corruption and money laundering is no easy task across Africa. For amaBhungane journalists, the key to accessing information and telling the truth is to get creative, both in court and with their words.

By Ruby Delahunt (Wits Centre for Journalism 2024 honours student)

At a massive forum like the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) with a myriad of panels, there’s no guarantee speakers will get a full crowd. But Room 105 at the Wits Science Stadium was full to the brim, packed with people eager to hear amaBhungane‘s Dewald van Rensburg and Caroline James give their talk.

Financial crimes such as corruption and money laundering are their specialisations – what Dewald describes as “crime that makes other crime possible.”

It’s no secret that across Africa and worldwide, corruption and money laundering are massive issues, ones that have crippled state infrastructure, drained country’s banks and ruined thousands of lives. These are serious offenses, and no one partaking in them wants nosy journalists digging into their business.

Thus, the two speakers were discussing how to dig into their business anyway, and how to spot the red flags that mean something is awry.

Dewald explained that there are three main things to spot when looking for money laundering: fake documents, front companies, and nonsensical transactions.

He gave examples of these by bringing up examples he has seen in his own work, such as businesses raking in millions of rands that were registered to derelict buildings and domestic workers being named as the CEOs of these companies.

Dewald’s latest work has been on the Gold-VAT scam in South Africa, which is a perfect example of massive financial crime. He explained one syndicate he’d been following – a gold and tobacco money laundering machine.

The machine works in a circular motion, transferring millions of rands between a number of accounts, banks, and countries in a matter of minutes. And, as Dewald explained, each transaction is made up to be a “gold sale”, which gives the company and its shady boss, Howard Baker, 15% VAT kickbacks.

Dewald uncovered nearly R1-billion made from this scam, a terrifying amount of money being leeched from the state. And yet, trying to expose this crime is a daunting process in itself, which requires a steely demeanor and lots of creative legal loopholing.

Caroline is amaBhungane’s advocacy coordinator and legal expert, so she explained to the audience that getting access to information is all about catching people out on their excuses before they use them. The right to privacy or commercial confidentiality is “not an excuse” to deny a PAIA request, she said, as information can easily be redacted before handing over documents.

Additionally, Caroline said journalists should start writing cover letters to go with their requests, with specific wording that makes it difficult for anyone to worm out of providing information. Asking for hyper-specific things – even something as simple as a table of contents – is hard to deny and can still be useful information.

The two conceded that amaBhungane is a one in a million organisation, and lucky to have the time and resources to litigate their way through problems. They have fought for media freedom all the way to the Constitutional Court and won, even up against billionaires and politicians.

As Dewald says, “you can’t throw enough money at a bad idea”, and amaBhungane has shown this through their years of hard work and dedication.

Journalists in the audience seemed awed by the bravery of Dewald and Caroline, but the two were humble and quiet. There’s no secret formula, the message of their panel seemed to be; its nose to grindstone work. As the public, we should be so lucky to reap the benefits.

Image: Caroline James and Dewald van Rensburg. Picture by Leon Sadiki