“There has been outstanding journalism over the past year,” said Professor Guy Berger, head of the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies, and convenor of the judging panel. “Critics should balance their concerns with the fine achievements this competition has highlighted, and meanwhile South Africans in general can feel there is good cause to value our free and vibrant newspaper journalists.”
From a record 575 entries across the 10 categories, the judging panel handpicked a shortlist of some 32 finalists and 25 commended journalists. Nine category winners have shared in R165,000 in prize money.
Hard news
Winner: Nerissa Govender – The Witness: “Family's blue light trauma” and seven other pages.
Govender's series of articles involved the motorcades of Jacob Zuma and S'bu Ndebele that were accused of violating traffic regulations and harassing motorists in KwaZulu-Natal
Finalist: Lee Rondganger – The Star: “Smash, grab… gone”
Commended: Riëtte Olivier – Die Burger: “Drama by doodsbrug”
Analysis and commentary
Winner: Jorisna Bonthuys – Die Burger: “Kioto2 kry nou stoom” and two other articles on the environment
Bonthuys covered the build-up to the United Nations Bali negotiations that focused on international climate dispensation after 2012.
Finalists: Nashira Davids and Buyekezwa Makwabe – Sunday Times: “War declared on gangs” and related stories
Commended: Malvory Adams – Sowetan: three part series on “Blacks know Rugby”
Feature /writing
Winner: Shaun Smillie – The Star: “The Search for Looksmart” and related stories
The winning entry was “The Search for Looksmart”, a feature that ran over four days in The Star.
Finalists: Lizel Steenkamp – Rapport: “Plek van die dood”
Commended: Jillian Green – The Star: “The man who danced with death”
Marida Fitzpatrick – Beeld: “Jan Bom – waar swaarkry triomfeer”
Leonie S. Joubert – Weekend Argus: “Tossed by wind, ocean and quotas”
Waldimar Pelser – Beeld: “Rukkerige spoedballet”
Investigative journalism
Winner: Chandré Prince, Brett Horner, Ntando Makhubu – Daily Dispatch: “Why Frere's babies die”
Months of hard work, persistence and sheer determination, even in the face of vilification, set the leading entries apart in this category with time and effort invested paying off in producing agenda-setting stories.
Finalists: Cobus Coetzee and Adriaan Basson – Beeld: “Staat het geweet eNaTIS sou vou” and follow ups
Jocelyn Maker and Megan Power – Sunday Times: “Manto's hospital booze binge”
Commended: Elise Tempelhoff – Beeld: “Mynmonopolie se gru-moeras” and follow ups
Tony Carnie – The Mercury: “Probe into metal illness factory” and follow ups
Diane-Marié Strydom – Die Burger: “Jy moet maar afskeid neem van jou familie…”
Creative journalism
Winner: Oliver Roberts – Sunday Times Lifestyle: “Don't look down”
This winning article is written in a column style and creatively covers behaviour typically regarded as taboo – people who saunter around in their ‘birthday suits'.
Finalists: Murray La Vita – Die Burger: “Gesondheid in die rondheid!”
Commended: Claire Angelique Bezuidenhout – Sunday Tribune: “It's not all black…”
Michael Bleby and Mariam Isa – Business Day: “An officer and a gentleman”
Graphical journalism
Winner: Jonathan Shapiro – Zapiro Productions
This category covers the very different fields of cartooning, illustration and information graphics, but was once again dominated by a cartoonist. The judges tried very hard to avoid awarding first prize to Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), but once again failed.
Finalists: Hanlie Malan – Die Burger
Commended: Anton Vermeulen – Beeld
De Wet Moolman – Beeld
Popular journalism
Winner: None
Finalists: None
Commended: Natascha Jacobsz – Sondag: “Zuma se ‘kondoom' vir goeie geluk”
This was the first year that a special category was provided for popular tabloid journalism, and entries were disappointing. There are a great many bold, innovative and entertaining pages every day in the tabloid press, but they were not among the entries, which were dominated by hard news reporting or feature writing of a kind that was not specific to popular journalism.
“We had hoped to see examples of the best tabloid journalism in the form of packages of creative writing, headline writing, editing and design,” says Berger.
News photographs
Winner: Alon Skuy – The Times: “Hillbrow flight”
The quality of entries was extremely high, and stronger than the previous year. South Africa is a news photographer's paradise – but it is the individual photographers who rise to the occasion. And they did so in 2007.
Finalists: Francois Nel – Die Burger: “Road of Chaos”
Commended: Alon Skuy – The Times: “Line of fire: riots Soweto”
Stephen Lawrence – The Star: “A worrying time”
Shayne Robinson – The Star: “Out of the frying pan” and “Cash heist drama”
Boxer Nqobizwe Ngwenya – The Star: “UJ Riots”
Mujahid Safodien – The Star: “Smash and Grab”
Wessel Oosthuizen – "The Citizen: Picture of Schalk Burger, CJ van der Linde and Bakkies Botha combine efforts against Simon Shaw
Feature photographs
Winner: Sandile Ndlovu – Sunday Tribune: Labour of love series
The judges felt that there was sometimes a mismatch between the photographs taken, and how they were used in a given newspaper. In addition, it was felt that the strong field of South African photographers suggests that more space could be profitably set aside in the country's newspapers to run their pictures.
Finalists: Masi Losi – Daily Dispatch: “You are now a man, my son”
Commended: Simphiwe Mbokazi – Business Report: Perd van ‘n ander kleur series
Jennifer Bruce – The Star: “Babies in a box”
Cara Viereckl – Saturday Star: Refugees
Sandile Ndlovu – Sunday Tribune: beach reflected in sunglasses
Presentation (layout and design)
Winner: Arlene Prinsloo – Die Burger: Untitled cover wrap photograph of the Springbok victory and other pages
Finalists: Renthia Bornman – Rapport: series of pages
Commended: Andries Gouws – Beeld: Series of front pages
Riana van der Schyff – Saturday Star: A series of pages
Contact Sandipa Shah Seeparsad, Newspaper Association of South Africa Tel: +27 11 484 3624 or email .
