How the record is kept·Unmapped Dataworks
Every source file and every release we publish has a SHA-256 fingerprint. It lets you check that a file or a release has not changed, without taking our word for it. This page shows a real one, what it proves, and what it does not. It also says who has a say over our figures: no one outside.
Official figures are read from official documents: the Gazette, regulators and departments. Figures measured from space or worked out by a weather model are marked as such, and name the open data they come from. For a document, we keep the file, and we print its fingerprint: 64 characters worked out from the whole file by SHA-256. Change one character of the file and the fingerprint changes. Here is a real one.
SHA-256 of the file, as we fetched it
0cd8c70ddf68b8861be4a0d80de6eb8a1b784f0aaf0d1c1d50c2809e4198f46b
Check it yourself, in about two minutes
shasum -a 256 the-file.pdf. Windows: certutil -hashfile the-file.pdf SHA256.No key and no account are needed. The same works for all 423 stored copies: each notice page prints its file’s fingerprint beside the download.
One exception: we must remove what we have no right to publish. It is listed below. Otherwise, when a source publishes something new, we do not edit our records in place. We cut a new release. The one before it stays as it was and can still be read. Each release has its own fingerprint: one SHA-256 over every record in it, in order.
Fuel prices: its last 3 releases, newest first
16,641 records at release. 4,745 added, 11,896 changed, 310 removed.
Taken 11 November 2026, 13:15, of the release as we held it then.
sha256 d12d4dc89e3db3ab6ac0cbc882ca2ff148f90325116f1855a705b2884b2bc037
12,206 records at release. 0 added, 12,206 changed, 7,128 removed.
Taken 11 November 2026, 13:00, of the release as we held it then.
sha256 c4deb4b463c3be3be8679022f2341344dd8e48e52d277aa5cb5ebfc12dfe518e
19,334 records at release. 19,334 added, 0 changed, 0 removed.
Covers the 12,206 of its 19,334 records still served. The rest were removed after release because we may not republish them.
Taken 11 November 2026, 11:45, of the release as we held it then.
sha256 c4deb4b463c3be3be8679022f2341344dd8e48e52d277aa5cb5ebfc12dfe518e
What the fingerprint shows
If one character of one record in a release changed after its fingerprint was taken, the release would no longer give it. All 69 releases of every dataset are on the change log, each with its fingerprint, or the reason it has none.
What we said on a past date
Old releases stay readable. In the API, as_at=2026-10-20 answers from the release that was live on that day. On the site, a notice page keeps every figure a notice set, even after a later notice replaced it.
Checking a release yourself
It takes the release’s records, so it takes an API key, and keys are not open yet. The fingerprints are public now, so you can save one today and check it later. The sum is simple and the docs give a short script: one line per record (its id, a tab, the record as JSON), all lines in order, through SHA-256.
“Never changed” does not mean a figure is never corrected. It means nothing is overwritten. When a record is wrong, the right figure goes out in a new release, the old release stays readable, and the correction is listed in public with what changed and why.
Corrections so far
3 records
The latest: B8R004, corrected in release 2026-11-11. Corrections, also as a feed.
How often we read a figure wrong
No errors
350 of 350 sampled records checked against the source page on 12 November 2026: no errors. Every month a random sample from each dataset is checked against the pages of its documents. The sample, every failure and the method.
When the source itself is wrong
Official documents have misprints. We keep the figure as printed, flag it, and say what the document itself implies. We do not quietly fix it. An example.
Two things we hold to
Our figures come from official documents and open data, each names its source, and none is ever changed to suit anyone: not a client, a sponsor, an advertiser, a government or a party. A figure changes only when the source changes or we find a mistake, and every correction is public, with the old figure still readable.
Unmapped Dataworks is independent. No government, party or company funds or directs what we publish. If that ever changes, we’ll say so on this page.
The independence policy
Who has a say
No one outside
No funder, client or partner has any say over our data, our corrections or our stories. We have none of the three today. If we ever do, the rule stays the same.
Who we take money from
Nobody today
The site is free and carries no adverts. No one pays to be included, left out or shown differently. If we ever take money from anyone, this page will say from whom and for what.
If you ask us to change a figure
Anyone can ask: hello@unmapped.co.za. We change a figure only on evidence from the source document itself. The change then goes out as a new release and is listed on Corrections, with what changed and why. A request without that evidence changes nothing, whoever it comes from.
Who decides
One person. Unmapped Dataworks is a sole proprietor’s business in Cape Town, with no parent company and no shareholders. Code reads and checks the figures, and that one person approves each release. One person can be wrong, which is why the files, the page numbers and the fingerprints are public.
What the law can require
We take down what we have no right to republish, and we withhold pages that name members of the public. That removes something. It never alters a figure, and each case is listed under the exceptions.
It shows
It does not
Where the rule bends, and what we do then
Source files
Each file is stored under its own fingerprint as its name. A changed file would be a different file with a different name, so it can’t take the place of the first.
Records
In the database where releases are made, each record’s text is stored once, under its own fingerprint, and a released record can’t be edited or deleted: the database refuses. The removal described above is the one switch that allows it.
Before a release reaches the site
23 of the 25 datasets are released from that database. Each release is compared with what the site holds, record by record, and both sides must give the same fingerprint. The other 2 (the rand and the dam levels) are released by a daily job and compared afterwards.
Backups
That database is backed up every night. Each backup has its own fingerprint, which is checked before a restore.
See it for yourselfEvery releaseCorrectionsEvery noticeIs the data current?Measured accuracyCheck a release
Unmapped Dataworks