Karyn Maughan is an award-winning senior legal journalist at News24, a respected documentary producer, and a bestselling author whose work has shaped national understanding of South Africa’s most consequential legal battles. With more than a decade of court reporting experience, she is widely recognised for her depth, accuracy, and unwavering commitment to social justice storytelling.
Karyn’s commentary features across leading broadcast outlets including SABC, Newzroom Afrika, eNCA, and she regularly contributes to BBC coverage of South African legal events. Her analysis is also sought after on radio stations such as 702, Khaya FM, SAFM, and PowerFM, where she breaks down complex legal matters with clarity and public accountability.
Her documentary work includes serving as associate producer on the Amazon Prime four-part series “Pistorius,” which was shortlisted for the highly regarded Grierson Award. The project showcased her ability to translate complex criminal and legal narratives into compelling long-form visual storytelling.
Karyn Maughan is a senior legal journalist at News24, documentary producer and bestselling author. She appears on SABC, Newzroom Afrika and eNCA. She is a BBC contributor.
She was the associate producer on aN Amazon Prime Documentary on Oscar Pistorius. The four-part series, called “Pistorius” and was shortlisted for the prestigious Grierson award.
She also regularly offers analysis on some of South Africa’s most high profile legal stories on radio stations 702, Khaya FM, SAFM and PowerFM, but is most passionate about reporting on social justice issues.
Karyn also appears on international broadcast stations like Al Jazeera and SkyNews She has been named as one of South Africa’s most influential journalists, and has over 448k followers on Twitter. Karyn has recently completed a book on the aborted Russia-SA nuclear deal – called “Nuclear”
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This 32 minute 51 second virtual launch features Karyn Maughan in conversation with News24 assistant editor Quanita Hunter, unpacking the research, evidence, and political context behind Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal. Hunter opens the session by situating Karyn’s career as an award-winning legal journalist and documentary producer before commending the book’s clarity, accessibility, and painstaking detail.
Karyn begins by acknowledging her co-author, Kristen Petersen, whose expertise in procurement law, public finance, and anti-corruption work significantly shaped the book’s methodological rigor. Together, they reconstruct the nuclear procurement saga using insider accounts, confidential minutes, intelligence documents, audio recordings, and state capture evidence.
The discussion centres on why the Russia-SA nuclear deal was shrouded in secrecy. Maughan notes that large-scale national procurement requires transparency and public accountability, both of which were deliberately avoided. Treasury was consistently excluded from processes despite warnings that the deal would dwarf the arms deal in cost and long-term economic impact. The absence of a viable funding model created deep anxiety within National Treasury and contributed to internal resistance.
A pivotal theme is the influence of former president Jacob Zuma’s long-standing belief that Western intelligence forces sought to kill him and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally saved his life following an alleged poisoning incident in 2014. This belief, supported by questionable intelligence reports and politicised investigations, shaped Zuma’s geopolitical loyalties and amplified distrust toward Treasury officials and critics of the deal. As Karyn notes, Zuma interpreted legitimate constitutional oversight as sabotage by Western-aligned “spies,” a narrative that fuelled purges, misinformation, and increasing institutional dysfunction.
This 57 minute 39 second episode of The Burning Platform features journalist and author Karyn Maughan in conversation with hosts Gareth Cliff and Phemelo Motene, unpacking the full political, legal, and geopolitical landscape behind the attempted Russia–South Africa nuclear deal exposed in her book Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal. The episode opens by situating the topic in the broader context of power shortages, Eskom’s governance failures, and the recurring political push to revive nuclear procurement each time load shedding escalates.
Karyn joins the discussion by addressing the professional and personal risks she faces as a journalist reporting on state capture, corruption, and intelligence abuses. She reflects on online harassment, gendered threats, and the looming possibility of private prosecution related to the Zuma medical-records dispute. Despite the danger, she emphasises the crucial role of investigative journalism in protecting constitutional accountability.
Moving into the origins of the nuclear deal, Karyn explains that nuclear energy had long featured in ANC energy policy, but the turning point occurred after Jacob Zuma’s 2014 medical trip to Moscow. Zuma came to believe he had been poisoned, that Russian doctors saved his life, and that Western intelligence agencies sought to kill him. This belief system, supported by abusive intelligence structures and dubious reports, shaped the secrecy and urgency behind his push for a Russian-led nuclear build that lacked transparency, feasibility studies, treasury oversight, or legal compliance.
The conversation explores the state-capture ecosystem that enabled the attempted deal. Treasury officials, including Nhlanhla Nene and Pravin Gordhan, resisted unlawful processes and suffered dismissals or smear campaigns. Fake intelligence dossiers such as “Spider Web” and “Operation Checkmate” were used to justify purges. Eskom executives allegedly aligned with Gupta-linked interests attempted to bypass regulatory safeguards, while Shiva Uranium positioned the Gupta network for lucrative downstream contracts. Karyn stresses that ordinary civil servants and two activists who litigated successfully were ultimately responsible for halting the deal in 2017.
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