Tholakele Nene is an Associate at Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism and Manager of the centre’s extractives digital app, #MineAlert, a centralised platform for users to access, track and share information and documents on mining applications and licences. #MineAlert aims to promote public- and private-sector accountability in the mining sector, to advance civil society and socio-economic rights, to protect the free flow of information, and to strengthen justice and equality. The platform hosts ground-breaking investigative journalism aggregated from extractives data, exposing in 2017 for instance never-before-seen data on the financial provisions for mine rehabilitation across South Africa.

Nene has been in the communications industry for six years, working on climate change, transport, local government and mining projects. In July 2017 she was named one of the 200 most influential young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian. Previous roles include Communication Officer for Urban Earth. Her work has been featured in Oxpeckers, Mail & Guardian, Huffington Post SA and Delivery Magazine.

Her essay on “Access-to-information challenges in the Department of Mineral Resources” was published by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa’s 2016 edition of In Good Company: Conversations around Transparency and Accountability in SA’s Extractive Sector.