Sam Sole

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Sam Sole
Born
Stephen Patrick Sole
EducationSouth African College Schools
Alma materUniversity of Cape Town
OccupationInvestigative journalist
Years active1986–present
OrganizationamaBhungane (since 2010)
Parent
AwardsVodacom Journalist of the Year
Taco Kuiper Award

Stephen Patrick "Sam" Sole is a South African investigative journalist. He is the co-founder and managing director of the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Before the centre became independent in April 2016, he was a journalist for the Mail & Guardian.

Early life and education

Sole's father was Donald Sole, a diplomat who during Sole's childhood was the South African Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and then the South African Ambassador to the United States.[1] Sole was a boarding student at the South African College Schools (SACS) in Cape Town, where he acquired the nickname "Sam" from his English teacher.[2] After matriculating in 1979, he failed to persuade his parents to allow him to study drama; instead he enrolled in a Bachelor of Science in computer science at the University of Cape Town but found that he was "neither very good nor very interested".[2] He transferred to a Bachelor of Arts and then dropped out entirely in favour of working.[2]

In mid-1984, after a brief hitchhiking tour of Europe, Sole was conscripted into the South African Defence Force. He later said that he considered leaving the country but enlisted to confront both the "ugly realities" of apartheid-era South Africa and his "doubts about my own courage".[2] He was a rifleman in the 6 South African Infantry Battalion in Grahamstown, which was deployed to nearby townships to quell ongoing civil unrest.[2]

Sole was in the defence force for two years.[3] During that time, in 1985, he wrote his first newspaper article, an account of police and military actions in the townships during the prevailing state of emergency; he submitted it to the End Conscription Campaign, which arranged for it to be printed anonymously on the front page of the International Herald Tribune.[2][3] Later he testified about his experience at the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.[4]

Early career in journalism: 1986–2010

Sole entered journalism full-time in 1986.[5] He worked at Noseweek and at the Sunday Tribune in Durban, where he was political editor.[5] During the post-apartheid transition of the 1990s, he wrote about third force political violence and the apartheid state's chemical warfare programme.[6]

In 2002 Sole joined the Mail & Guardian (M&G) as an investigative journalist.[5] M&G editor Howard Barrell later said that he recruited Sole and his colleague Stefaans Brümmer through "wooing and waiting".[7] On 29 November 2002, still in his first year at the newspaper, Sole broke the story of an ongoing criminal investigation into Deputy President Jacob Zuma for soliciting bribes from contractors in the 1999 Arms Deal.[8] For that story Sole won the inaugural Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award of 2002.[9][10]

Over the next few years, Sole mounted a series of award-winning investigations into political corruption in South Africa, often writing with Brümmer. The pair's investigations into Oilgate and the Oil-for-Food Programme won them the 2003 Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Award for investigative journalism.[11] In 2005, for further reporting on the same subject with Wisani wa ka Ngobeni as third co-author, they won the same Mondli Shanduka award,[12] the Media Institute of Southern Africa's John Manyarara Investigative Journalism Award,[13] and (shared with Bruce Cameron) the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award.[14]

In the next two years, for reporting on Jackie Selebi's ties to Brett Kebble, Sole, Brümmer, and colleagues won the 2006 Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Award for investigative journalism,[15] as well as the Mondi Shanduka South African Story of the Year Award in both 2006 and 2007;[15][16] they were also the joint runners-up for the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism in both of those years.[17][18] Shortly thereafter Sole received the 2008 Taco Kuiper Award jointly with Brümmer and Adriaan Basson for joint exposés of corruption in the Arms Deal;[19] they were also finalists for the Mondli Shanduka investigative journalism award that year.[20]

AmaBhungane: 2010–present

In 2010, Sole and Brümmer launched the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, branded as amaBhungane; it was a semi-autonomous non-profit organisation for investigative journalism which was a spin-off of the M&G's existing investigative unit.[21] The model for the centre was inspired by the non-profit Bureau of Investigative Journalism and ProPublica, and in its first fiscal year it received two-thirds of its funding from M&G and the other third from the Open Society Foundation.[22][23] Before launching it grew from three staff members – Sole, Brümmer, and Adriaan Basson – to five.[22]

The centre published its first article in the M&G on 19 March 2010 under the title "Zuma Inc.", a mapping of the business interests of individuals close to the recently elected President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma.[24][25] That exposé was the 2010 Mondli Shanduka South African Story of the Year.[26][27] Sole was also the joint winner of the 2010 Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award for best feature for amaBhungane's series on Radovan Krejčir, written by Sole, Brümmer, and Ilham Rawoot.[28]

In April 2016, amaBhungane became an entirely independent organisation, terminating its exclusivity agreement with the M&G.[21] Initially serving as managing director alongside Brümmer,[21] Sole became the centre's sole managing director in 2021 when Brümmer stepped down.[29] He is also a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.[30]

Personal life

Sole is married and has two daughters.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Embassy of miracle and wonder". The Mail & Guardian. 20 December 2003. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Sole, Sam (21 December 2023). "Stepping up and stepping out". News24. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b Sole, Sam (25 February 2019). "To Adri Senekal De Wet: The soul is dead at Independent". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  4. ^ "TRC Final Report Volume 4, Section 1: Mr Sam Sole, former conscript in the townships". Truth Commission Special Report. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "Sam Sole". amaBhungane. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  6. ^ a b Haffajee, Ferial (22 September 2019). "Sam Sole & Stefaans Brummer took on the surveillance state, and won". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  7. ^ Barrell, Howard (24 November 2005). "Never just a newzzzpaper". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  8. ^ Sole, Sam (29 November 2002). "Scorpions probe Jacob Zuma". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Past winners – Vodacom Journalist of the Year". SABC News. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  10. ^ "Another award comes home". The Mail & Guardian. 26 September 2003. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  11. ^ "Mondi Newspaper 2003 Award winners shine..." Bizcommunity. 6 May 2004. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  12. ^ "All the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper journalist winners". Bizcommunity. 5 April 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  13. ^ "M&G Oilgate team doubly awarded for reports". The Mail & Guardian. 29 August 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  14. ^ "M&G wins top award for Oilgate reporting". The Mail & Guardian. 30 October 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  15. ^ a b Kruger, Franz (26 April 2007). "Kebble story brings honours to two papers". Journalism.co.za. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  16. ^ "Mail & Guardian team wins SA Story of the Year". Media Update. 9 April 2008. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  17. ^ "Taco Kuiper Award Winners". Journalism.co.za. 27 April 2007. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014 – via University of the Witwatersrand.
  18. ^ Kruger, Franz (28 June 2008). "Judges' remarks for 2007 Taco Kuiper prize". Journalism.co.za. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  19. ^ "M&G investigative journalists scoop prestigious award". The Mail & Guardian. 17 April 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  20. ^ "M&G lauded at Mondi Awards". The Mail & Guardian. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  21. ^ a b c "Goodbye, hello from amaBhungane". The Mail & Guardian. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  22. ^ a b Schmidt, Christine (31 January 2018). "Digging for dung, unearthing corruption: This South African investigative nonprofit could help take down the president". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  23. ^ "Fertilising SA's rotting ecosystem: M&G's new investigative journalism centre". Daily Maverick. 23 April 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  24. ^ "Zuma Incorporated". The Mail & Guardian. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  25. ^ "Keeping it in the family". amaBhungane. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  26. ^ "M&G's Mondi triumph: Journalism is a team sport". amaBhungane. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  27. ^ "Story of the Year: The M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane)". The Media Online. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  28. ^ "amaBhungane wins Vodacom's best feature award". The Mail & Guardian. 7 November 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  29. ^ Villiers, James de (21 August 2021). "Stefaans Brümmer, amaBhungane co-founder, on crooks, graft and why he's moving on". News24. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  30. ^ "ICIJ Member Sam Sole". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
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