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AFP · 15 October 2026 · Via New Vision
Power, money: suspected political hits surge ahead of South Africa polls
AFP’s report cites Ballots and Bullets, the Global Initiative report that counted at least 43 people killed in 45 suspected political attacks in the first nine months of 2026, ahead of the local government elections on 4 November.
The New York Times · 2 October 2026
Why are there so many mass shootings in South Africa?
The report uses the Global Initiative’s count of 45 mass shootings and 210 deaths in South Africa in 2026. It examines how criminal groups use mass killings to control territory and intimidate communities. It also describes how record-keeping failures at the Central Firearms Register let legal guns leak into the illegal market.
CNN · 2 October 2026 · Nimi Princewill
South Africa is reeling from a spate of mass shootings. What’s behind the sudden spike?
The report relies on the Global Initiative’s count of 45 mass killings by late September, which spans illegal mining, extortion, gang violence and taxi disputes. It also explains why police need to trace recovered guns and pursue the financiers and suppliers behind the shooters.
Bloomberg · 2 October 2026
Mass shootings show the face of South African murder is changing
Even as South Africa’s overall murder rate falls, more people are dying in mass shootings linked to competition between criminal groups. The report traces the rise in mass killings from June and links it to police corruption and the easy availability of guns.
Daily Maverick · 27 September 2026 · Lerato Mutsila
17 shot in Joburg, 10 in Cape Town: 2026 mass-killings toll now 196
Daily Maverick’s reporting on the Carletonville and Cape Town shootings takes its toll of 41 mass killings and about 196 deaths in 2026 from the Global Initiative’s count. It places the weekend’s attacks within a sharp rise in organised-crime violence. Illegal mining and extortion are among the possible motives for the Carletonville shooting.
Financial Times · 4 September 2022 · Joseph Cotterill
South Africa faces global financial watchdog’s ‘grey list’ risk
Bankers warned of the cost of grey-listing ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s review in October 2022. Why grey-listing was almost inevitable after two decades of damage to law enforcement, and why the FATF’s concerns about South Africa were more serious than those it had raised about the United Arab Emirates.
The New York Times · 24 September 2018 · Rachel Nuwer
How to stop poaching and protect endangered species? Forget the ‘kingpins’
The report argues that arresting so-called kingpins has done little to stop the trade in rhino horn and ivory, and points to the case of Chumlong Lemtongthai, the Thai national convicted in South Africa for a rhino-hunting scheme that used women hired to pose as hunters.
News and videoNational Geographic
National Geographic · 16 October 2017 · Rachel Nuwer
North Korean diplomats accused of smuggling ivory and rhino horn
Rachel Nuwer’s report sets out the findings of Diplomats and Deceit, the Global Initiative report that identified at least 18 cases in which North Korean diplomats were implicated in rhino horn and ivory smuggling.
Voice of America · 7 October 2017 · Kim Youngnam
North Korea’s rhino horn smuggling could grow as sanctions limit cash flow
The interview with VOA’s Korean service covers the findings of Diplomats and Deceit, which linked North Korean diplomatic passport holders to 18 detected rhino horn and ivory smuggling cases involving diplomats in Africa. It also covers the risk that the trade will grow as sanctions cut North Korea’s access to legitimate income, and the shift in demand towards Chinese and Vietnamese buyers.
The Economist · 21 September 2017
Africa is a smugglers’ paradise for North Korean diplomats
The article is built around Diplomats and Deceit, the Global Initiative report that found North Koreans implicated in 18 of the 29 rhino horn and ivory smuggling cases involving diplomats since 1986. It opens with the 2015 detention in Maputo of an alleged North Korean spy and an embassy counsellor, whose vehicle held almost $100 000 in cash and 4.5kg of rhino horn.
Duke Reporters’ Lab · 17 May 2015 · Ishan Thakore
Africa Check’s Julian Rademeyer: a career of digging
The profile was written after a visit to Duke University in April 2015 under the Reporters’ Lab Visiting Fact-Checker Program. It traces a career from a school newsmagazine to work as a Reuters stringer and as an investigative reporter on corruption and organised crime, and then to the editorship of Africa Check.
National Geographic · 25 October 2014 · Laurel Neme
US indictment accuses South African brothers of trafficking rhino horns
The report covers the US indictment of Dawie and Janneman Groenewald and their safari company, who were accused of luring American hunters into illegal rhino hunts and selling the horns in Asia. For the South African case against Dawie Groenewald, who faced 1 736 counts, it turns to Killing for Profit. In an interview recounted in the book, Groenewald rejected the label of poacher.
Outside · 16 March 2014 · Paul Kvinta
The madness of modern-day poaching
Paul Kvinta’s feature follows Johnny Olivier, a South African who took a job collecting lion bones for an international wildlife trafficker and found himself inside a pseudo-hunting scheme that killed more than 30 rhinos.
The New York Times · 23 July 2013 · Rick Lyman
Nonpartisan fact-checking comes to South Africa
The article profiles Africa Check in its first year. It describes the group’s investigation into the musician Steve Hofmeyr’s claims that white South Africans were being killed in great numbers, which Africa Check found to be incorrect and grossly exaggerated.