JOHANNESBURG – This year, the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards celebrated 20 years of democracy in South Africa, as well as the 20th anniversary of Vodacom keeping people connected in South Africa.
Maya Makanjee, Chief Officer for Corporate Affairs at Vodacom Group said, “We are thrilled that the number of entries was up this year from 2013, and that 967 journalists entered their work. Vodacom, along with journalism itself, has seen so many changes in how news is covered over the past 20 years.
“The past year has been one of very impactful media stories, and I am aware that the judges had a difficult time selecting the winners. For us, we are proud to be a part of the communications industry that assists journalists to get fast-moving news to the public.”
Mary Papayya, co-convenor of the judging panel concurred with Makanjee, saying that the judges had faced an immense task in making their selections this year.
Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award
The 2014 Journalist of the Year Award goes to two journalists from the Eastern Cape who covered the Mandela Funeral scandal unashamedly for the Daily Dispatch.
“This story has been crowned among our nation’s best in journalism – for a story that was gripping and truthful, for reporting that was unrelenting, and for excellence and commitment to news – the unveiling of the corruption relating to former President Nelson Mandela’s funeral resulting in seismic repercussions for the guilty officials,” said the judges when announcing their selection.
Vodacom is pleased to congratulate Bongani Fuzile and Mphumzi Zuzile of the Daily Dispatch, who between them will share the 2014 Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award, and the coveted prize of R100 000.
Vodacom Journalist of the Year Lifetime Achiever Award
This year, Vodacom also sought to honour a journalist who has contributed to this field in an exemplary manner, by presenting a seasoned journalist with the Lifetime Achiever Award.
This year’s winner of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Lifetime Achiever Award was born in Durban in 1937 and represents a proud and tumultuous era of journalism that paved the way for a robust, free, and constitutionally-protected media. He was part of a collective of journalists who advocated for a free South Africa at great personal expense.
Vodacom is delighted to announce that this year’s Vodacom Journalist of the Year Lifetime Achiever Award goes posthumously to Nathanial Ndazana Nakasa, also known as Nat Nakasa.
During the course of his career, Nakasa worked for Ilanga laseNatal, Drum Magazine, Golden City Post, and the Rand Daily Mail, and also founded The Classic in 1963 with the intention of publishing “African writing of merit”. He believed strongly in freedom of speech, and dedicated his writing to bridging the racial divide in South Africa at a time when it couldn’t have been wider. Nakasa refused to be boxed in by any ideology or political movement and ensured that he alone defined himself and his purpose in life.
When Nakasa was awarded the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in the USA, the apartheid government refused to grant him a passport to leave the country. Not to be restricted by this, Nakasa left South Africa on a one-way exit permit and described himself as “A Citizen of Nowhere”.
Nakasa left South Africa in 1964 and sadly died tragically in New York City on 14 July 1965, aged 28. He was buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in uptown New York close to American civil rights leader Malcolm X. His death was a devastating blow to South African media and its struggle for a democratic society.
After years of lobbying by his sister, Mrs Gladys Maphumulo, to the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, the national government, the South African National Editors’ Forum, the Nieman Society of South Africa, and various academic champions, Nakasa’s remains were returned to South Africa on 19 August 2014, exactly 50 years after his forced exile and 20 years into our democracy.
He was reburied at the Heroes Acre, Chesterville cemetery in Durban, his hometown, on 13 September 2014.
Many have written about Nat Nakasa and his work:
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu described him as “a rainbow man, when the rainbow was not allowed”.
• His friend and colleague Joe Thloloe has said that Nat found solace and a weapon in writing, and didn’t wallow in bitterness: for him it was all about crossing boundaries.
• The late Can Themba wrote that Nakasa’s voice was one that said, “There must be humans on the other side of the fence; it’s only we haven’t learned how to talk.”
• The late judge Essop Patel wrote of how Nakasa “focused his attention upon the idea of common experience and desired a truly South African nation”.
• Nakasa himself said, “I am a South African. My people are South Africans. Mine is the history of the Great Trek, Gandhi’s passive resistance in Johannesburg, the wars of Cetshwayo and the dawn raids which gave us the treason trials in 1956. All these are South African things. They are a part of me.”
The award was received by the Nakasa family, led by his nephew Thami Nakasa.
Vodacom Journalist of the Year: Editor’s Choice Award
The Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards also seeks to identify a young journalist, nominated by their editor for outstanding work, and showing great promise. The Editor’s Choice Award honours a young person who shows the potential to become a truly great journalist.
This person must also be someone who shows great leadership skills and can serve as an ambassador for our country. The judges interviewed nominees from throughout the country and were impressed by most, and finally selected this year’s winner, Chelsea Geach of the Cape Argus.
She displayed great general knowledge, but also a passion and commitment for journalism, and an understanding of the media landscape that would have solicited nods of approval from the most experienced journalists. Geach will win a fully paid study trip.
This year’s Vodacom Journalist of the Year had 967 entries in 12 categories: CSI/Sustainability, Financial/Economic, Online, Photography, Print Feature, Print News, Radio Feature, Radio News, Sport, Television Feature, Television News and Editor’s Choice.
“The judging panel this year had to make hard choices and we thank Mary Papayya (convenor of the judging panel), Elna Rossouw, Collin Nxumalo, Arthur Goldstuck, Johann de Wet, Joe Thloloe, Ryland Fisher, Megan Rusi, and Patricia McCracken, who made their time and expertise available to us,” said Makanjee.
Each winner takes home R10 000.
The winners of the 2014 Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards nationally are:
2014 Radio Feature
Given the strong competition in the radio feature entries this year, the judges considered the merits of each regional winner at length. In the end, it was decided to award joint national winners for this category. Both entries used sound to great effect, and both followed an emotional and factual story line. The interplay between the factual and emotional added to the credibility of these entries. The winners are Christal-Lize Muller of OFM for her entry on Yolande Korkie’s plea for the release of her husband Pierre, and Melini Moses of the SABC (SAfm) for her feature on childhood cancer.
2014 Radio General News
The winning story exploited all the key elements needed for telling an excellent radio news story. The sound bites were crisp, the script clear, and the presentation powerful, and the listener was taken to the scene at every break in the story hearing from the victims and every person or entity connected to the story. Despite pressures of deadlines, fresh news angles coupled with research, featured prominently. The listener was given the best news coverage available despite the story being in demand across all media – print, radio and the TV networks. The winners for a piece entitled ‘Killing fields” are Andries Liebenberg and Nonkululeko Hlope from SABC Radio News.
2014 TV Feature
The city of Cape Town is arguably the most beautiful location on the African continent. While visitors enjoy the unlimited offerings of the city, local residents of Mannenberg live under constant fear for their lives. Drugs and gangs rule. Disentangling what the issues are can be very complicated, with even those tasked to implement the law and protect the people involved in double dealing. This feature succeeds in bringing the story to the attention of the authorities who have the power to diffuse a lethal situation. The winner in the TV Feature category is Hazel Friedman of Special Assignment, and her camera team Marc Mullenberg, Pamela Zokufa, and Trevor Pistorius.
2014 TV General News
For many of us access to clean air, running water, and a healthy environment, are a given. But for a large population of Cape Town’s black townships, these privileges are a rarity. The winning story gives us a behind-the-scenes exposure of what life is like without flushing toilets. The story is gripping, the interviews insightful, the script, and the visuals excellent, making Nomawethu Solwandle of SABC news the winner for her expert portrayal of life without flushing toilets.
2014 Print Feature
In a year of big stories such as the Nkandla saga, the fallout from the Marikana massacre and the Oscar Pistorius trial, the death of former president Nelson Mandela was by far one that captivated the country and the world’s attention. The demand for news on the event required tenacity, creativity, and sheer brilliance. The entry that stood out was one that captured in a series of superbly-crafted articles the loss felt in our country after the death of one of the world’s greatest statesmen. Writing for the Cape Argus and the Weekend Argus, the winner is John Yeld.
2014 Print General News
The death of former President Nelson Mandela was undoubtedly the biggest news story of the year, but it was sometimes too big for many of the media houses that covered it. The winners of the national title in the Print News category were among the exceptions – they kept their eye on the money and thus uncovered corruption related to Madiba’s funeral. The repercussions of this series of stories for many government officials have been seismic. The winners are Bongani Fuzile and Mphumzi Zuzile of the Daily Dispatch.
2014 Photography
All the regional winners used the tools of photographic reporting in different and remarkably inspiring ways to create revealing, touching and often disturbing images. They showed their readers and the judges truths about South Africa that we could not deny. In the language of lenses, texture, perspective, and composition, they depicted South African dreams and nightmares – the South African soul. South Africans like to think they are survivors. And some really are. Some are remembered, some are half-forgotten, living on the margins. For turning a feature assignment into subtle and personal documentary photography of the highest order, in which poetic vision and a poignant plea to the future coalesce in intimately trusting portraits of a unique and fast-disappearing way of life, the winner is: Conrad Bornman of Volksblad for ‘Karretjiemense so uitgedruk’.
2014 Financial/Economic
This is a demanding category and it has heavily contested around the country this year. There have been excellent entries from news teams, well-informed specialists, and investigative journalists. The winning entry combined strong relevance and topicality with committed and skilled investigation, expressed in gripping prose, as it probed allegations of deep-rooted, systemic corruption. For tracking a web of tender fronting at the heart of one of South Africa’s biggest-ever procurement deals, the Transnet R50 billion locomotive procurement, the winners are Pieter-Louis Myburgh and Dewald van Rensburg for ‘Transnet tender doubts’ in City Press and Rapport.
2014 CSI/Sustainability
The critical issue of living and working sustainably, particularly in the southern hemisphere, was highlighted by the national winning entry in this category. Researched in the heart of the community, it was also supported by well-presented socio-economic, environmental, and health detail. In this broad-based community, most do not have the means to make a new life away from the dangers that threaten or have already undermined their health. They may not even have the means to care for themselves properly, let alone protect themselves. As the reporter observes, the story of acid mine-drainage has been told – but the story of the toxic mine dumps has been neglected. The winner is Sheree Bega of the Saturday Star for ‘Remining could mean double the toxic trouble for residents’.
2014 Online
There was a significant increase in both the quantity and quality of online category entries this year. The winner provided journalistic excellence that would have stood out in any medium. The report integrates work utilising a variety of tools of the online medium, yet it appears seamless because it has been so well planned and properly integrated – instead of simply uploading additional standalone reports into an online environment. Text, video interviews, still photography, well-designed and clear infographics, and well-chosen, useful links combine to create a report which synergises to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. For an illuminating report on the impact of TB and silicosis in the gold mining sector, the winner is Rebecca Davis of the Daily Maverick.
2014 Sports
In deciding on the national winning entry for the sport category, the judges had no hesitation in agreeing on a rare and heartfelt entry that shakes the viewer. The quality of the script, presentation, and creativity displayed is highly commended. The feature tells the story of the first black South African champion who had come out of a black-owned and managed Mixed Martial Arts club and who participated in the international arena. And then, quite unexpectedly, he went completely blind after contracting meningitis. Despite the devastating setback, Ronald Dlamini stood firm; learnt to cope with his disability; and now trains fellow blind people in the sport in Pietermaritzburg. The journalist spent much effort in following the career path and progress of this young man. Vodacom’s national winners for the sports category are Carvin H Goldstone and Xolani Cele of eNCA.
Makanjee said, “This year has been a celebration of democracy, Vodacom’s anniversary, but most of all the excellent entries received by the judging panel. To say that some of the world’s biggest stories played out in the period is not an exaggeration. Equally we saw entries from journalists who looked beyond the obvious and found jewels of stories.
“Communication is Vodacom’s core business, and our support for these awards rewards excellence, courage, and determination to tell the truth across a wide range of media platforms.”
