Journalists at M&G scoop top awards
The Mail & Guardian walked away with several prizes at this year’s Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards, among the most prestigious in local journalism. More than 800 entries were received for the Northern Region, comprising Gauteng and the provinces to its north.
Lionel Faull, Vinayak Bhardwa, Sam Sole and Stefaans Brümmer of the M&G’s investigative unit, amaBhungane, won in the financial/economic category for “Transnet tender boss: R50-billion double game”. Politics reporter Matuma Letsoalo also won as part of the team that investigated how the Gupta and Zuma families were hidden stakeholders in a lucrative locomotive contract.
Multimedia journalist Sebabatso Mosamo was joint winner in the online category for “Still no furniture at Eastern Cape schools”, which looked at how students in that province still have to study without the most basic of equipment.
Phillip de Wet, Sipho Kings, Sarah Wild and Rapula Moatshe won the CSI/sustainability category for “SA’s great thirst has begun”, about how water shortages were following the same path as Eskom, with water-shedding the inevitable outcome.
The national award ceremony will be held on November 27.
In addition, Wild won the prestigious CNN Africa Technology and Innovation Reporting award for her story “Robot to test health of ocean ‘lungs’” (June 12). The continent’s foremost award for science reporting was given at a ceremony in Nairobi last weekend. Wild’s story looked at the environmental testing of oceans’ health, in relation to the effects of global warming, by a team of scientists who send robots into the southern oceans.
The judges said it used a simple tone in communicating the technicalities of the subject: “It’s an excellent reminder that there are African-led research programmes at the forefront of the climate change issue. Sarah Wild transports the reader into the heart of the project, with the team deploying this new generation of sea-cruising robots.”
Four South African journalists won in Kenya, beating 1 400 entries from 39 countries.