From potholes to Parliament: How our stories keep the government accountable

One ministerial probe and funding freeze after Daily Maverick exposes Swimming SA

Daily Maverick’s reporting exposed millions in public funds spent on the Franschhoek High-Performance Centre that sits incomplete and derelict. Three institutions responded: the Special Investigating Unit opened an investigation, the National Lotteries Commission cut Swimming SA’s funding, and Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie launched his own probe. At a May media briefing he said: “I must congratulate Daily Maverick for exposing all of what’s happening there.”

24 hours for a municipality to act on beachfront safety failures

After a series of articles and a scathing column exposing infrastructure decay and security threats along Gqeberha’s beachfront, the Nelson Mandela Bay ­Municipality moved within 24 hours to issue an emergency memo promising streetlight repairs and reinforced security measures.

Two Johannesburg city accountability wins as civic pressure builds

The ANC Integrity Commission ruled that a Johannesburg member of the mayoral committee has a case to answer on extortion and assault allegations – referring him to a disciplinary committee after Ferial Haffajee filed a report, which was part of a wider ecosystem of media and civil society scrutiny. Haffajee was also among a crowd at a protest outside the abandoned Metro Centre in Braamfontein. Architects, planners and residents demanded accountability for the building’s multibillion-rand drain on the city.

R88-billion in public pension fund losses exposed, launching
a formal challenge in Parliament from the DA

Neesa Moodley’s exposé about the Public Investment Corporation revealed that R88-billion in public servants’ pension money was severely compromised in non-performing unlisted investments within its Isibaya Portfolio. Just two weeks after the deep-dive report laid bare how multibillion-rand chunks of deferred wages for teachers, nurses and police officers had been written down to zero, the DA moved to launch a formal statutory probe in Parliament, forcing the minister of finance to face direct scrutiny over weak due diligence and political interference.

One constitutional intervention issued to protect the public service from political overreach

National reporting by Victoria O’Regan and Peter Fabricius uncovered how secretive ANC parliamentary study groups were obtaining direct policy briefings from public servants. After our coverage and cross-party complaints, the Public Service Commission intervened, officially advising state officials that participating in such groups undermines the constitutional values governing public administration.

One pothole made safer

Just two days after Daily Maverick’s Estelle Ellis published an article on hazardous sinkholes and road decay in Gqeberha brought on by flood waters, a municipal crew installed a high-visibility reflective warning chevron at a dangerous pothole on Kabega Road. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.