Who Owns South Africa: Private Media

Join Open Secrets on Tuesday, 20 October 2026 at 6pm at the Homecoming Centre for the fifth instalment of the Who Owns South Africa investigative series.

Media workers are the writers of history. They document the living record of our changing world at a time when rising fascism, disinformation, funding cuts and retrenchments are making it harder for the truth-tellers to do their work.

In this volume, we document the ownership of the five largest private media houses in South Africa.

South Africa’s media and journalists remain on the frontline of defence against malfeasance in the public and private sectors, exposing corruption and abuse of power in the public interest. In doing so, they empower all people in South Africa to pursue accountability and exercise their constitutional rights.

When South Africa’s media is under threat, we all are.

Join Hennie van Vuuren, Ra’eesa Pather and Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki in conversation, hosted by Letlhogonolo Letshele.

Hennie van Vuuren is the founding Director of Open Secrets and has over twenty-five years’ experience working on issues of economic crime and accountability from within civil society and as an investigative journalist.

Ra’e