Mandy Wiener

SPECIALIST REPORTER AT NEWS24 AND 702 RADIO HOST

Why we think she’s brilliant: Because of her uncompromising effort to try to tell the whole story, including the human story, and to let the facts speak for themselves – whether it’s about a mobster like Radovan Krecjir, a state-capture mastermind in the country of his birth, or the low-hanging fruit like the assassins who killed Brett Kebble in an orchestrated suicide.

In her interviews Mandy displays a general likeability that may explain why, as an investigative journalist, she could get so close to many of the notoriously secretive kingpins of organised crime, and why they were so ready to spill their guts to her. It’s an excellent technique, but it probably also stems from a real interest in what makes people tick. In her interviews with Krecjir, the fact that he continued to profess his innocence didn’t stop her from prodding, often with shocking directness. She has gone on record saying that she grew to like the gang bosses she researched for Ministry of Crime: they were charming and big on family.

As an investigative reporter for Eyewitness News, Mandy cut her teeth on the Kebble story. ‘I spent five years on the Brett Kebble murder, and as the story evolved… I grew in confidence; I cultivated sources.’

What drives her: As she told Ruda Landman, ’I really wanted to just hear from [Brett Kebble’s killers] and let them tell the story; and that’s what I always try to do, regardless of whom I’m interviewing: give them an opportunity to get their version across… I would rather hear their version and understand their world better.’

❛The underworld didn’t go away after Krecjir went to prison. There are still very dominant kingpins and cliques… The difference is they don’t necessarily want the publicity.❜