Daily Maverick journalists honoured at Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and Standard Bank hosted the Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards on Saturday.

Nwabisa Makunga, the newly elected Sanef chairperson, said, “These awards showcase and celebrate South Africa’s excellent journalism. They honour the sacrifices made by journalists every day, who tell the story of our country with so much courage, passion and dedication.

“The impact of their work to advocate for social justice and to hold power to account is often unseen, but it is significant. For this, we must celebrate them. Congratulations to all the winners.”

Lucas Ledwaba

Lucas Ledwaba, a journalist who regularly wrote for Daily Maverick, received the Journalist of the Year award for his body of work, including two stories published in DM168, “On a quest for healing justice” and “Gold mining widows battle with trauma and poverty”.

They tell the story of a marginalised section of South African society, with the former article exploring the experiences of two widows whose husbands died of silicosis after decades of service in the mines.

“It has been Lucas’s crusade as a freelancer to breathe life into the stories of South Africans outside the urban centres. Without the backing of a news organisation, he finances his own travels, takes his own pictures and mostly edits his own work. He is among the best to do so,” stated the report on the Sikuvile Journalism Awards.

“He uses his intensely poignant writing on these timeous issues confronting South Africa and challenges the authorities to act on behalf of the voiceless and unseen — and that is commendable journalism.”

Ledwaba, who ran Mukurukuru Media Enterprise, also won in the Features category for the same stories.

Julia Evans

Daily Maverick’s Julia Evans bagged the Juby Mayet Rising Star of the Year Award for her article “Taxi industry public transport pollution”. The piece was based on research from Stellenbosch University on whether it’s possible to use electric vehicles in the minibus taxi industry.

The report on the awards stated, “This was a very good example of reporting on scientific research in an accessible and readable way to outline policy options that could help the mass transit sector, find new paths for local manufacturing and combat climate change by reducing emissions. Julia has proven to be a strong and enterprising journalist in a beat that requires her to translate academic research into accessible journalism.”

The late James Clarke was posthumously honoured with the Allan Soga/Standard Bank Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his excellent work and ethical approach to journalism. He was known as an “activist journalist” who rallied public support against the National Party government’s plans to mine the Kruger Park, according to Sanef.

The winners in other categories:

• In the Hard News category, the award was shared by Zikhona Tshona of Newzroom Afrika for the story “Ofentse” and Slindelo Masikane of eNCA for the story “Best Escape”;


• In the Indigenous Language Reporting in Community Media category, the winner was Hlengiwe Ngwenya of SABC’s Cutting Edge for the story “Amabhodlo”;


• In the Community Service Reporting category, the winner was Hazel Friedman of Fokus on SABC2 for her story “Oukloof”;


• The Investigative Journalism award went to the News24 team of Kyle Cowan, Azarrah Karrim and Sipho Masondo for their story “Mashatile unmasked”;


• In the Business Journalism category, the award went to Nick Wilson of News24 Business for the story “Convicted Health & Racquet fraudsters sub-let lucrative site to Virgin Active”;


• In the Lifestyle category, the award went to Nomvuyo Ntanjana of SABC’s Cutting Edge for the story “Buru the Snake Guru”;


• The Columns/Editorial category winner was Bhekisisa Mncube from LitNet for the story “The contested legacy of Mangosuthu Buthelezi”;


• The Visual Journalism (editorial cartoons & graphic layout) winner was Thulani Ntsong of Maverick Citizen for the body of work including “Lesufi”, “Elections” and “CR Zondo”;


• The News Photographs winner was Ayanda Ndamane of Cape Times for “Pro-Palestine crowd clash with police”;


• In the Feature Photographs category, the winner was Theodore Jeptha of Daily Dispatch for “We walked a mile in their shoes… and it was terrifying”; and


• The Sports Photographs winner was Bertram Malgas of News24 for the body of work including “Springboks demolish Romania in Bordeaux try-fest” and “Springboks stumble against still-unbeaten Irish outfit in Paris”.

Daily Maverick had a number of finalists and commendations. Suné Payne and Samane Junior Marks received a commendation for their story “Divided and riven with discontent — a deep dive into Swellendam”, in the Community Service Journalism category.

In the Investigative Journalism category, Caryn Dolley received a commendation for her article “Deadly syndicates and the illicit diamond deals”.

Don Pinnock received a commendation for his article on “Magic season in Cederberg’s high valleys”, entered in the Lifestyle category.

On top of his other awards, Ledwaba was also a runner-up in the Columns/Editorial section for his piece, “ANC cadres couldn’t tolerate the competent load-shedding man”.

The design team of the newspaper DM 168 was named as a runner-up in the Visual Journalism category. DM