M&G, South Africa

The Mail and Guardian, founded in 1985 as The Weekly Mail, was the first South African daily to turn its back on racial allegiance in its selection and coverage of news. It was also one of the first publications to discuss "fringe" issues such as homosexuality in apartheid South Africa. Since then, M&G has become widely known and respected as the leading investigative journalism newspaper in the region.

In 2004, M&G broke a corruption story that attracted international attention and shook South African politics to the core. The series of investigative articles into "Oilgate" continued into 2005 and revealed a political scandal in which US$1.5 million of state oil money went to African National Congress (ANC) party coffers shortly before the elections.

Before M&G's initial story could be published, the oil company obtained a court order restraining the newspaper from publishing the article, but it was outmanoeuvred when an opposition political party revealed the same information in parliament. Since the information was now in the public realm, the M&G was able to print the article.

"Oilgate" was an important milestone for South African media, showing that the independent press can play a significant role in revealing corruption and conflicts of interest that can undermine democracy. "Oilgate was more than a series of articles; it was a passion on our part and the part of the M&G to expose something that was so clearly wrong," said Stefaans Brummer, co-author of the articles.

The M&G received multiple awards for the coverage, including Vodacom Journalist of the Year, Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards and the Media Institute of South Africa's John Manyarara Investigative Journalism Award. The articles have been praised as thoroughly researched, well written and analytical, demonstrating the "highest levels" of balanced and fair reporting. As described by the Vodacom awards, Oilgate will "forever be remembered as a beacon of investigative journalism" in South Africa.

MDLF provided working capital that enabled the management to transform the newspaper into a financially viable business, and, more recently, provided further financing for the company to develop an independent distribution system that has significantly increased circulation.

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