Maya Makanjee, chief officer for corporate affairs at Vodacom Group said, along with South Africans celebrating 20 years of democracy, the cellphone company was also celebrating its 20th Anniversary.
She said communication was at the core of what Vodacom does and felt it important that awards such as these celebrated the role played of communicator by the journalists to their communities.
“This year, there as an increase in the number of entries received in the 12 categories and none of the entries were short of brilliant,” she said.
Before handing out the first part of the awards, Mary Papayya, the convenor of the judging panel said, “Once again, the judging process was filled with vigorous debate, and I thank the judges for the critical and concise decision making they committed themselves to. The work we saw was excellent and we hope to see continued growth and momentum for the Vodacom Awards.”
Regional winners each took home R5 000 and attended the national finals in Johannesburg on 31 October 2014.
The winners of the 2014 Vodacom Journalist of the Year regional Awards in the Northern Region are:
2014 CSI/Sustainability winner
Sheree Bega. Saturday Star, Remining could mean double the toxic trouble for residents.
2014 Financial/Economic winners
Pieter-Louis Myburgh and Dewald van Rensburg. City Press and Rapport, Transnet tender doubts.
2014 Online winners
Bianca Bothma, Dianne Hawker, and Lenyaro Sello. eNCA, Road to Qunu.
2014 Photography winner
Paul Botes. Mail & Guardian, Marikana aftermath.
2014 Print Feature winner
Carlos Amato. Sunday Times, feature on Carlton Centre and articles on the rape trial and murder trial of Anene Booysen and its aftermath (Body of work).
2014 Print News winner
Debora Patta. City Press, Coverage of how ambulance broke down on night former President Nelson Mandela was transported to hospital – the beginning of the end.
2014 Radio Feature winner
Melini Moses. SABC, SAfm, Prevalence of childhood cancer.
2014 Radio News winner
Alex Eliseev. Eyewitness News, South Africa’s water crisis.
2014 Sport winner
Sameer Naik. Saturday Star, Preparations for Brazil World Cup, contextualsing South Africa versus Brazil.
2014 Television Feature winners
Fathima Simjee. Health e-News Service, Sugar Daddies.
2014 Television News winner
Zikhona Tshona. eNCA, Investigation into “fake” sign language used at former President Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.
2014 Editor’s choice winner
Christine Mhundwa
