About The Record
What is The Record?
A South African legal intelligence platform. Not just news — the full story of how events become investigations, how investigations produce charges, and whether anyone is ever held accountable.
Why it exists
Courts happen. Commissions report. Laws are applied. But the thread connecting an incident in 2012 to a conviction in 2024 is scattered across hundreds of articles, official gazettes, and judgment PDFs. The Record connects it all in one place.
How it works
We track news as it happens.
We map charges to the laws that apply.
We build the thread — from first report to final outcome.
The plain English promise
Every legal concept on this platform is explained at three levels: for a child, for an adult, and for a lawyer. Because accountability shouldn't require a law degree.
Built by Codist
A note on accuracy
We distinguish between allegations and findings. We distinguish between charged and convicted. The Constitution's presumption of innocence applies here just as it does in court.
Money tracking on the homepage
The homepage counter shows a single national total of Rand amounts we link to stories — described as tracked, not asserted as stolen. Each figure keeps its qualifier (exact, approximate, under investigation, and so on) on the story page.
To avoid double-counting the same scandal across several stories, only rows marked as the primary record for that amount feed the national total. Other rows may still appear on a story for context (for example, the same deal value investigated under different bodies).
Amounts are grouped by how we classify them (under investigation, allegedly stolen, confirmed stolen where charged or convicted, recovered, fruitless and wasteful, and prevented). The disclaimer on the homepage matches the API and is always shown with the counter.
Legal & editorial
Who runs this: The Record is built and operated by Codist (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Editorial approach: We distinguish between allegations, charges, and convictions. We link to primary sources. We show brief excerpts, never full articles. We explain legal concepts — we do not provide legal advice.
Our commitment: We will correct factual errors. Contact: editorial@therecord.co.za
Information Officer (POPIA): [your name] — privacy@therecord.co.za
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