Where Is South Africa’s Data Journalism When We Need It Most?

Last week, I missed the beginning of the much-anticipated Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, a major inquiry that, if early signs are anything to go by, could have seismic implications for our understanding of the state, law enforcement, and institutional rot in South Africa. Like many others who couldn’t afford to follow it live, I turned to the media hoping for a sharp, comprehensive wrap-up. I was left wanting.

Despite the dramatic revelations, coverage remained stuck in the daily, episodic grind. Article after article captured snippets of what was said on the day, but there was no coherent overview, no structured summary, no mapping of names, dates, or connections. In short, there was no data journalism. And it's this absence that now looms larger than ever.

The Cost of a Narrative Vacuum

We live in a country where commission of inquiries have become a form of national catharsis. From the Zondo Commission to Marikana and Life Esidimeni, we gather in front of screens or scroll through updates hoping for accountability, clarity, justice. But commissions are dense, long-winded, and deeply layered. Without someone to draw the red strings between names and timelines, the public, and sometimes even journalists lose the thread.

The Madlanga Commission is shaping up to be another information avalanche. Names are being dropped. Institutions are being implicated. Allegiances are being exposed. Yet unless you're watching minute-by-minute, you’re likely missing the full picture. This is where data journalism should be stepping in, not to replace reporting, but to enhance it.

What Data Journalism Could Look Like

Imagine an interactive timeline updated daily, showing when and where key witnesses testified. A searchable database of testimonies, showing who mentioned whom, which institutions have been implicated, and the frequency of certain themes (e.g. corruption, political interference, state security).

What if you could click on a name like “Mkhwanazi” and see a spiderweb of associated actors and their links to events across years? What if a news site published digestible infographics summarising daily highlights in context, not just what was said, but what it means, how it connects, and why it matters?

This isn’t a fantasy. We’ve seen the New York Times, ProPublica, and Bellingcat do it. And locally, amaBhungane and Viewfinder have shown the potential of investigative data work, albeit on a smaller scale. The tools exist. The need is clear. So what’s stopping us?

Why We’re Not Seeing It

The truth is, most South African newsrooms are running on fumes. Years of media consolidation, funding cuts, and dwindling advertising revenue have hollowed out what used to be vibrant, competitive newsrooms. Data journalism, while necessary, is expensive, time-consuming, and requires a blend of editorial, technical, and design talent that many outlets simply can't afford.

But this is also about priorities. Legacy media houses continue to chase SEO-optimised clickbait while the biggest stories in the country are being buried under the weight of their own complexity. A newsroom will assign multiple reporters to cover a press conference but won’t invest in a single coder-journalist to build a live database of a commission that could reshape the political landscape.

What We’re Losing

Without structured, contextualised data-driven journalism, we lose collective memory. A year from now, when we try to recall what was said at the Madlanga Commission, who testified when, and how the pieces fit together, we’ll be scrambling again, just like we did after Zondo, just like we did after Marikana.

We lose accountability. Politicians and public servants know that public attention is short-lived. The less we track, the easier it is for power to slide back into the shadows.

What Needs to Happen

We need investment in public-interest data journalism, now more than ever. This means training journalists in data tools, building partnerships between media outlets and civic tech organisations, and exploring alternative funding models, like public grants or philanthropic support, to enable deep, long-form reporting.

But it also means an editorial shift. Newsrooms must start treating commissions, inquiries, and investigations not as isolated events but as ecosystems of information. Stories must be contextualised, structured, and archived in ways that empower the public to engage meaningfully.

Until then, those of us trying to follow the most important stories in our democracy will be left cobbling together fragments, hoping the bigger picture doesn’t slip away.

South Africa doesn’t lack journalists. It lacks the infrastructure, vision, and investment to support the kind of journalism this moment demands.

The Madlanga Commission is happening in real-time. The question is: will anyone be able to make sense of it when it’s all over?