Original, evidence-led South African journalism that explains the country to itself - reported fairly, in plain language, without an agenda.
Who publishes this
The South African Enquirer is published by Ashman & Company Media (Pty) Ltd, in South Africa. It is an independent publication: no political party, campaign or commercial sponsor has any say over what appears here.
What we report, and how
Our reporting is anchored in documents: official statements, gazetted notices, court rulings, parliamentary records and published figures. Where a claim cannot be traced to a source a reader could check for themselves, we either attribute it plainly or leave it out. We do not invent quotes, figures, people or events, and we do not publish an anonymous claim as though it were established fact.
We explain as well as report. A story is not finished when the facts are listed. It is finished when a reader can see what those facts mean for them.
How our journalism is made
Our reporting is drafted with the help of AI tools, working only from source material our editorial desk supplies: official statements, gazettes, court rulings, statistical releases, parliamentary records, documents and transcripts. Every article is then read, checked and approved by a human editor before it is published, and the desk it appears under is accountable for it. No article publishes automatically.
We do not use AI to invent facts, quotations, people or images, and we do not publish anything no editor has read. We tell you this because a byline is a claim about who did the work, and you are owed the truth about ours.
Pictures
Our photographs come from Wikimedia Commons, other openly-licensed libraries, or our own files, and every one carries its photographer, source and licence with a link to the original. A picture must show what the story is about: we would rather run a plain branded panel than illustrate a story with a real person or place that has nothing to do with it. We do not publish AI-generated images of real events, places, people or documents. Where an illustration or a diagram is generated or drawn, it is labelled as one.
Our desks
- News: The day's stories, explained clearly.
- Politics: Policy, parliament and public accountability.
- Investigations: Original, evidence-led journalism.
- Business & Technology: South African business and technology: the companies, the software, the deals and the people building them - including the firms taking local products to international markets.
- Society: Education, health, communities and daily life.
- Africa: The continent, from a South African vantage.
- Culture: Film, television, books and music - the stories we tell ourselves, and what they are really about.
- Opinion: Comment and analysis, clearly labelled as opinion.
Bylines
Stories carry the credit of the desk that filed them, such as the Politics Desk, the Investigations Desk, the Business & Technology Desk, and so on, or, for comment, The Enquirer Editorial Board. We would rather show you which desk stands behind a story than attach a name that tells you nothing.
Opinion is separate
Comment is published in the Opinion section, labelled as opinion on the page and on the front page, and argued from evidence. Our reported sections carry no such label, because reporting is not comment.
Corrections
If we get something wrong we correct it and say that we did. Write to corrections@thesouthafricanenquirer.com with the story and what is wrong with it.
Talk to the newsroom
News tips: news@thesouthafricanenquirer.com
The editor: editor@thesouthafricanenquirer.com