Taco Kuiper Awards
The Wits Centre for Journalism’s annual Taco Kuiper Award, celebrating its 20th edition in 2026, recognises outstanding examples of investigative reporting in South Africa that reveal untold stories, hold the powerful to account and question those in public life. Taco Kuiper was a highly successful South African publisher who left a significant part of his estate to the promotion of investigative journalism, administered and supported through The Valley Trust.
Guidelines for Entries
All South African and South African-based journalists are invited to submit entries for the annual Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism.
The award recognises outstanding examples of investigative reporting that reveal untold stories, hold the powerful to account and question those in public life, and can be made to a journalist or team of journalists for a single story or a series of stories (please do not include pieces from earlier years, though where relevant they can be referred to in your motivation).
The motivation is extremely important as it should ensure the judges are fully aware of the work that went into the story, challenges, its originality, context and impact. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges who have discretion to set and use criteria they consider to be appropriate and reasonable.
The top prize is R200 000 and the runner-up wins R100 000.
Follow this link to complete the entry form.
Deadline for 2026 entries: 13 February at 12 noon.
Applicants must upload the following:
— An electronic copy of the entry material as published/broadcast. If the original is reduced in size it must be accompanied by a readable Word/PDF document version. It is the obligation of the entrant to ensure that judges can access the electronic copy. Should the entry appear behind a paywall, please ensure the judges are given guest access or are otherwise able to access the work.
— Material that is not in English must be accompanied by an English translation or transcript.
— A 100-word biography and photo of each entrant (these can be included together in one document).
— A high-res copy of the publication/broadcaster’s logo.
— A short motivation for the entry (maximum 500 words), including any background the judges should be aware of, an indication of the impact of the story and details of any significant challenge to the accuracy or fairness of the entry such as published letters, corrections, retractions, formal complaints or continuing court cases.
— Broadcast entries must include a short video clip of the story for publicity purposes. Please do not upload full video(s), rather provide links in a separate document.
Judges
Two permanent judges represent out funders the Valley Trust, Wits Centre for Journalism and the international media. They are assisted by judges appointed each year.
Tom Cloete
Cloete is a Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. He is also one of the five trustees of The Valley Trust, a trust set up by the late Taco Kuiper to promote investigative journalism.
Cloete studied law at Rhodes University and at Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He was admitted to the South African bar in 1975 and also practised in Botswana and Swaziland.
In 1991, two years after becoming Senior Counsel, Cloete was appointed to the Johannesburg High Court. He was the Senior Judge of the Commercial Court in Johannesburg until he was elevated to the Appeal Court. He has also served on the High Court of the Kingdom of Swaziland and as an ad hoc Judge of Appeal in Seychelles.
Sarah Carter
Carter works for the US television network CBS, based in Johannesburg. She has won awards for several programmes including Death by Denial on Aids in Africa and her investigation into South Africa’s apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare programme. She teaches the Masters in International Reporting at the Graduate School of Journalism, UBC, Canada.
In 2010 her students won an Emmy for their PBS/Frontline documentary Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground, which traced the path of electronic waste around the globe to Ghana, China and India.
Beauregard Tromp
Tromp is a veteran investigative journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the convenor of the WCJ’s African Investigative Journalism Conference, and previously served as an Africa editor with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and deputy editor at The Mail & Guardian newspaper.
Beauregard has won numerous awards for his work, including Mondi Shanduka journalist of the year, Vodacom journalist of the year and CNN/Multichoice African print journalist of the year. He was also a 2013 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, a visiting Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of Miami, a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University, and a founding member of the Forum of Black Journalists. He holds a degree in journalism from the University of the Witwatersrand. He is the author of a biography of liberation fighter Chris Hani.
Khadija Sharife
Sharife is an award-winning investigative journalist based in South Africa. With a focus on global illicit financial flows, political economy, and environmental predation, Khadija has contributed to investigations about illegal logging in Madagascar, grand corruption in Angola and commodity traders fueling arms trafficking in Cote d’Ivoire. She is the former director of Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers and is a board member of Finance Uncovered.
Khadija previously led an African chapter of the EU’s Environmental Justice Liability and Trade project, overseeing research, policy, and investigation into ecological trade and corruption fueling conflict. She contributed to the book “Tax Us If You Can: Why Africa Should Stand Up for Tax Justice.” Khadija has a Master of Laws degree and is a 2021 Yale Poynter Fellow in Journalism.
Previous Winners
2024: Sikonathi Mantshantsha of News24 for “Waste Land”. The runner-up was Dewald van Rensburg of amaBhungane for his series, “The Laundry”.
2023: Daniel Steyn and Marecia Damons of GroundUp for the Thabo Bester saga. Runners-up were Aron Hyman, Graeme Hosken and Tankiso Makhetha from TimesLive for “Zama Zama Turf Wars”.
2022: Ray Joseph of GroundUp for “Gaming the Lottery”, and Jeff Wicks of News24 for “Silenced: Why Babita Deokaran was Murdered”.
2021: Pieter-Louis Myburgh of Daily Maverick for the Digital Vibes scandal, and Susan Comrie and Dewald van Rensburg of amaBhungane for the UPL Chemical Disaster.
2020: Jeff Wicks and Kyle Cowan of News 24 for “Killing Kinnear”.
2019: Pieter-Louis Myburgh for Gangster State. The runner-up was Pauli van Wyk of Daily Maverick / Scorpio for the EFF / VBS Bank scandal.
2018: Kyle Cowan (Bosasagate) and Susan Comrie (The Regiments Capital Series).
2017: The amaBhungane, Daily Maverick and News24 team for #GuptaLeaks
About Taco Kuiper
Taco Kuiper was a highly successful South African publisher who left a significant part of his estate to the promotion of investigative journalism. As a business journalist and publisher, Kuiper knew that exposing matters of public concern which those scrutinised would not want to see disclosed, was an enterprise. As he himself did not shy away from taking on public institutions and profiteers of apartheid policy, he thought it important to foster and reward investigative journalism in South Africa.
It was for this reason that Kuiper, shortly before his death in September 2004, set up a fund for investigative journalism within The Valley Trust. The Trust has partnered with the Wits Centre for Journalism to carry out Kuiper’s wishes and to administer the Taco Kuiper Award and Fund. Kuiper was born in 1941 in Indonesia and spent his early years in a Japanese internment camp. His parents were Dutch and the family returned to the Netherlands after the war.
He was sent to Johannesburg in the early sixties to work for Barclays Bank. At heart an entrepreneur, he soon started his own investment statistical service. Working out of a tiny flat in Joubert Street, Johannesburg and assisted by two disadvantaged youngsters, he established what became the foundation for his business and wealth: The Investors’ Guide.
Kuiper had a strong love of South Africa and strong views about the extent to which apartheid had financially disadvantaged the black community. By the time he died he had surrendered his Dutch citizenship and become a South African citizen.
His funeral made headlines. In a letter marked ‘not to be opened until after my burial’, he had left instructions that every family present at the funeral service would share in a legacy of R1,000,000. Ninety-two families were there and each received just under R11,000.