October 8, 2025
Our Annual report is here!
In 2024/25, Open Secrets’ work was broadcast, debated, and acted on, and it was sustained by the commitment and support of partners within civil society and on occasion by engaged state institutions. In this report we reflect on Open Secrets’ impact and achievements in the past financial year, measured against our organisational objectives. Read on and see what we got up to!
We launched Who Owns South Africa? (WOSA)
We launched the first volume of ‘Who Owns South Africa’ (WOSA) at the end of August 2025. The System: Money, Power and Politics reveals how concentrated private wealth, oligopolies, and corporate dominance continue to shape South Africa’s economy and politics, and asks what this means for the struggle to end inequality.
At the launch, Mamello was in conversation with Michael Marchant, Head of Investigations at Open Secrets, Koketso Moeti, the Founding Executive Director of amandla.mobi., and activist Phindile Kunene. We also had various insights and contributions from key local civil society organisations.
For the second instalment, we turned the spotlight on to the role of private players in the health care system to show how the concentration of private power shapes the sector. Zen Mathe and Luthando Vilakazi were joined by Fatima Hassan, the founder of the Health Justice Initiative, in conversation with Open Secrets Investigator Luvano Ntuli.
Catch up on the discussion below!
Access to Information Network
On 7 August 2025, the Access to Information Network (ATI Network) hosted a workshop and submission handover event, bringing together the Information Regulator, Information Officers from state entities, and member organisations of the ATI Network.
At a time when climate change and energy insecurity are urgent challenges in South Africa, access to information is a powerful tool. It enables the public to understand the intricacies of these sectors, scrutinise decision-making, and demand greater transparency and accountability from those in power.
The ATI Network compiled and submitted a report engaging with how our courts have interpreted and applied the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) in cases concerning access to information, particularly on energy- and climate-related information requests. The examples shared offer critical guidance on the proper treatment of access to information requests in the energy and climate space.
The ATI Network seeks to continue these engagements with the Information Regulator, with those goals in mind.
MPs’ pension fund must come clean about investments in fossil fuel companies
Are MPs’ pension funds investing in an unsustainable future? Read the joint op-ed by Luthando Vilakazi from Open Secrets and David Le Page from Fossil Free South Africa discussing why we need to know whether our MPs are banking on fossil fuel companies to fund their retirement.
In the media
- WATCH | Who Owns South Africa? | The Dan Corder Show
- READ | Who Owns South Africa’ report points to ‘commodification’ of healthcare in private sector | Daily Maverick
- LISTEN | Open Secrets report: Who Owns South Africa – Private Healthcare: Medical Aid Schemes and Private Hospitals | SAFM
- LISTEN | Who Really Owns Private Healthcare in SA? A Deep Dive into Profits, Power & Inequality | KAYA 959
- LISTEN | HEALTH FEATURE: South Africa’s Healthcare Inequality | Power 987
- LISTEN | Open Secrets report reveals Who Owns SA – Radio 786
- WATCH |Open Secrets launches new investigative series – Newzroom Afrika
- LISTEN | Who Owns South Africa: The System – Money, Power and Politics – Creative Corner
- READ | Sapref for R1 – clean break for corporations, death sentence for communities
- WATCH | Worries over meaningful contributions at the National Convention
- WATCH | Refinery for R1 – Carte Blanche
