Oxpeckers was founded and is headed by Fiona Macleod, a seasoned investigative environmental journalist who is pioneering the use of new media tools to expose eco-offences and to track offenders around the world.

Prior to founding Oxpeckers, Macleod worked as an award-winning journalist and editor at a range of the region’s top media. She served as environment editor at the Mail & Guardian newspaper for 10 years, and was awarded the coveted Nick Steele Award recognising her contributions to environmental conservation through her pioneering reportage.

Macleod won the prestigious SAB EnviroMedia Written Media Award in 2018 for collaborative multimedia journalism projects, and the Print and Online Award in October 2014 for the Oxpeckers Fellowship project. Under her leadership, Oxpeckers was 2019 Merit Award winner in the Asian Environmental Journalism Awards, 2017 SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year, CNN Multichoice African Environment Journalist of the Year in 2016, and 2016 Journalist of the Year at the China Environmental Press Awards.

Anne Driffill-Cruse is our accounting officer and office manager. With more than 26 years of experience in bookkeeping and accounting, she has served a range of South African companies. Her contribution to the Oxpeckers Center since its founding has included registering it as a non-profit company and setting up our accounting and admin systems.

Anina Mumm is a science journalist, digital media specialist and entrepreneur. She is a long-time Oxpeckers associate, as well as the chairperson of SciBraai, a proudly South African NPO dedicated to science journalism, communication and outreach. Anina also co-founded ScienceLink, a company that helps scientists connect with the world, particularly through the use of multimedia storytelling and other innovative digital tools.

Andiswa Matikinca joined Oxpeckers in September 2018 to manage the Oxpeckers extractives digital tool, #MineAlert, and as an associate journalist across all our mobile and web-based tools. She is a graduate from Rhodes University, where she majored in journalism, media studies and sociology. In 2022 she worked as a researcher and reporter for Viewfinder, an Accountability Journalism unit that exposes abuses of power which impact on the public’s interest.

Thabo Molelekwa is an award-winning health and environmental journalist, with a focus on climate change and renewable energy, food security, nutrition and HIV/AIDS in South Africa. He is a graduate of the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker Training Programme in 2022, and continues to report on green energy projects for our #PowerTracker project. Thabo is also the EU Citizen Journalism Fellowship Coordinator at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Jonas Kiriko is a journalist based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for more than 10 years, with a particular interest in investigations relating to water, the environment and agriculture. He is the InfoNile coordinator in the DRC, and works with Oxpeckers on transnational data-based multimedia investigations into environmental crimes. He has a degree in information and communication sciences: multimedia publishing department of the Université de l’Assomption au Congo (UAC).

Nompumelelo Mtsweni works with data and other multimedia elements to produce meaningful stories and tools that aim to drive positive impacts in society. At Oxpeckers she works as a data wrangler and trainer, focusing on environmental crime for our #WildEye tool and renewable energy for our #PowerTracker project. She participated in the Media Hack Data Journalism in Africa Masterclass programme in 2021 , and was awarded the Vodacom Journalist of the Year regional award (Western Cape) in 2021 under the sustainability category.

Tholakele Nene acted as manager of the Oxpeckers extractives digital tool, #MineAlert, and an associate journalist across all our mobile and web-based tools for three years. In July 2017 she was named one of the 200 most influential young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian. Her work has been featured by Oxpeckers, Mail & Guardian, Huffington Post SA and Delivery magazine. In July 2023 she joined Code for Africa’s Knowledge team as a community coordinator.

Derick du Toit is a learning specialist working with the Oxpeckers #WildEye projects. He specialises in project development, scientific research, training programmes, public participation facilitation, resource materials development, reporting and evaluation. He has managed and co-managed projects in education and natural resources management for a wide range of institutions, as well as developing and running training programmes. He has a Masters degree in environmental education.

Hsiuwen Liu is a journalist based in Hong Kong. Her reporting focuses on geopolitical developments, human rights and social justice around the region. Topics she has covered range from political trauma, disinformation, illicit trade and wildlife trafficking. She has covered a variety of investigations for the Oxpeckers environmental crimes platform #WildEye, and for publications in Hong Kong.

Yuexuan Chen served as an intern at Oxpeckers in mid-2019, and has since collaborated with us on various transnational investigations. After her Oxpeckers internship, she studied at Duke University in the US, graduating with majors in public policy and biology, and a certificate in Policy, Journalism, and Media Studies. In 2021 she was based in Beijing for a one-year master’s degree in global affairs funded by Schwarzman College, and started an internship in the health and environment department at 知识分子 (The Intellectual), a science news NGO in China that works with China Dialogue.

Oscar Nkala is a Zimbabwean freelance journalist and wildlife crimes researcher who works with Oxpeckers in transnational investigations across borders in sub-Saharan Africa, exposing illegal wildlife trade and the syndicates involved. Since 2017 he has developed a pioneering dossier of work investigating the donkey skin trade, available in our Donkey Trade Files.

Estacio Valoi is a Mozambican journalist who works with Oxpeckers in transnational investigations into environmental problems in the sub-Saharan region. Topics he has covered range from poaching to climate change, timber looting and wildlife trafficking syndicates. He has also covered a wide range of investigations for Zambeze newspaper in Mozambique and as a freelancer for international media outlets.

Rudi Bressa is an Italian freelance environmental journalist who assists Oxpeckers with transnational investigations into environmental crime in Europe. He also writes about energy transition and sustainable development, and contributes to Huffington Post, LifeGate, Le Scienze and other media. He has managed data journalism projects with Oxpeckers investigating the illicit financial flows of online wildlife trafficking, tiger trade and illegal timber routes in Europe.

Yolandi Groenewald is a seasoned environmental reporter based in Johannesburg. Her stories focus on climate change, food security, development, science, pollution, energy, water and sanitation. She previously worked as environmental reporter for the Mail & Guardian for 10 years, where her investigations won several national awards – including finalist in the prestigious Taco Kuiper Investigative Journalism Awards. In 2015 she won the Zimeo Award for Media Excellence in the health category. She recently authored a Greenpeace report on new coal power stations and water resources. She was a regular contributor for City Press, and in June 2017 was appointed Johannesburg bureau chief at Fin24.

Rehana Dada is a filmmaker, writer and researcher focused on earth sciences, environment, development and climate change. She is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow, and has consulted as a researcher in climate change and sustainable development. In 2011 she was a founding coordinator for the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign, and from 2007 to 2009 managed communications for Working for Wetlands. She produced and directed documentaries for 50/50 on SABC television for 13 years, and produced and presented programmes for SAfm on SABC radio for four years. In June 2015 she joined the South African Adaptation Network as a policy and governance specialist.

Michelle Nel has worked as a freelance environmental journalist, photographer and editor for more than 20 years. She is a member of Al Gore’s Climate Leadership Corps and was the first freelancer to win the SAB Environmentalist Journalist of the Year Award for print. She serves on the Linbro Park Environmental Monitoring Committee in Gauteng, which aims to turn a closed landfill site into a recycling and recreational area. She has helped numerous organisations with their communications strategies on issues ranging from people and parks to wetlands.

Shi Yi is a Chinese environmental journalist who served as an Oxpeckers Fellow in 2015, exposing wildlife trafficking routes from Namibia to Asia. For these investigations she won the coveted Journalist of the Year Award at the China Environmental Press Awards in June 2016. She has been based at the influential Shanghai news website called The Paper since 2014. Her reports cover topics such as climate change, biodiversity and pollution issues in China. Before joining The Paper, she was an investigative journalist at Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai.

Richard Spoor is one of South Africa’s foremost public interest law practitioners. He is an attorney with particular expertise in the fields of constitutional and administrative law, environmental law, land reform and mining. His cases include representing asbestos miners suffering from lung diseases in a successful action that led to more than R380-million in compensation; and representing more than 23,000 former gold miners suffering from silicosis in a class action for damages against members of the South African gold mining Industry. In November 2019 he was awarded the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s Man of the Year award ‘for being a role model to lawyers and young men in challenging social injustice’.

Margaret Raubenheimer is a management consultant, corporate governance expert and tax advisor on all trading entities. Her experience as an auditor since January 1985 ranges from dealing with large companies to small, owner-managed entities and parastatals, as well as being involved with tax, tax planning, estates, etc. She is currently a director of A2A Kopano Inc, Stabilis Inc and of Hospice Nelspruit.

Ron Nixon is an international investigations editor at The Associated Press. Previously he was Washington correspondent for The New York Times for eight years. He specialises in investigative reporting and data journalism, and has also been an environmental reporter. Nixon has extensive experience in reporting in African countries, and has trained journalists from several African countries in investigative reporting techniques. He is chairman of the board of 100Reporters, is on the board of the Great Lakes Media Center, and is a visiting associate for media and journalism studies at the University of the Witwatersrand Journalism programme.

Khadija Sharife is an investigative journalist, researcher and Africa editor at the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). She is the director of Plateforme de Protection des Lanceurs d’Alerte en Afrique, board member of Finance Uncovered and the Global Investigative Journalism Network, and fellow with the World Policy Institute. Previously she was the editor at the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR). She has worked with forums including Pan-African Parliaments, African Union, OECD and UNEP, among others. She is the author of Tax Us If You Can: Africa, and holds an LLM in financial law. Her focus is illicit financial flows, natural resources and political economy.

Russell Baloyi has worked extensively on issues of environment and development in both the public and private sectors in South Africa and abroad. He played a crucial role in establishing the Midrand Eco City Project and is team leader of the national Greenest Municipality competition. He is founder of EnviDev Consulting, which assists municipalities to develop integrated waste management plans, trains community members as Eco-guides, and assists the National Youth Development Agency with youth recycling and green economy collaborations. He is a recipient of the Weekly Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Award, the Sowetan Youth Leader of the Year and the Clinton Democracy Fellowship.

Gustavo Faleiros is a journalist and media trainer who specialises in data and geo journalism. He is the environment investigations editor at the Pulitzer Center and the founding editor of InfoAmazonia, a digital mapping website that uses satellite and other data to monitor the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Faleiros helped create the Amazon Communications Network and the Brazilian environmental news site O Eco. He is a former manager of the Earth Journalism Network and Knight International Journalism Fellow.