This correspondence serves to welcome you to the amazing wonders of the computer age.
Join me in my agony after losing upwards of 500 words of this week’s letter from the editor, after pressing the wrong key on the computer.
At my age I am expected to remember and rewrite all that was lost. Life is tough, what can I do, man?
I remember writing something to the effect that by the time you read this, dear reader, I would be burning tyre, headed for Centurion in Gauteng.
The purpose of the trip is to represent The BEAT at the Forum for Community Journalists (FCJ) awards gala dinner, scheduled for Leriba Hotel and Spa tonight (29 June).
You should remember in recent weeks we reported that your favourite read had been shortlisted for the FCJ Excellence Awards.
The BEAT is on the shortlist for the best headline-writing category.
I am also humbled to say that I have also been shortlisted for the category of best regular column, which I write for The BEAT’s sister publication, Die Pos/The Post.
Die Pos/The Post editor, Keina Swart, together with us at your favourite read, are on the shortlist for best headline-writing.
Like the recent Caxton Excellence Awards — for which I was named best columnist of the year — the FCJ Excellence Awards are dead serious business.
For instance, we at both Waterberg newspapers have been shortlisted alongside some of the finest titles nationwide.
The FCJ is an independent, non-profit, non-racial and voluntary organisation striving to promote and express the interests of all community journalists.
Awards co-ordinator, Fanie Groenewald, is on record to say entries had been received from no less than 130 journalists, from upwards of 80 newspapers nationwide, drawn from all the nine provinces.
The shortlist for the best headline-writing include the most respected Potchefstroom Herald, Bloemfontein Courant, Vaalweekblad, The Village News, Kalahari Bulletin and Roodepoort Northsider.
In our previous article about the awards, I emphasised that the shortlists for both awards is not about me in isolation.
Oftentimes whenever I write any narrative, be it a headline or column, I step back and ask the reporters to give their own views.
More often than not the younger journalists tear my suggestions to pieces.
Having said that, there is a real possibility that some of those shortlisted columns or headlines had been tweaked for the better by Mzamane Ringane, Lizzy Bapela and TK Mashaba.
I am sleeping over at an inn (for Biblical ol’ time sake!) in Centurion.
The plan is to touch base with family and friends in Pretoria for the better part of the weekend.
Hoping to be back in time for the jazz session scheduled for Club Paradise in Bela-Bela late on Sunday.
— The BEAT
