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 a rise in 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 most influential and biggest private media houses in South Africa.

South Africa’s media and journalists remain a frontline of defence against malfeasance in the public and private sectors, revealing 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.

In conversation: Hennie Van Vuuren, Ra’eesa Pather, Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki

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