By Staff Reporter
One of the country's most coveted journalism accolades, the Nat Nakasa award, was awarded to Anton van Zyl during a function held in Sandton on Saturday night. Anton is the owner and manager of the Limpopo Mirror and Zoutpansberger newspapers.
The Nat Nakasa award is a very special acknowledgment for courageous journalism. Its custodians are the SA National Editors' Forum (SANEF), with the support of Print and Digital Media SA. This year's function was sponsored by Sanlam. Previous winners include journalists such as Jon Qwelane, Mathatha Tsedu, Buks Viljoen, Max du Preez, Mondli Makhanya, and Qaanitah Hunter.
The award is named after a South African journalist and writer, the late Nat Nakasa. He was born outside Durban in 1937 and, at a young age, started working as a junior reporter at Ilanga Lase Natal, a Zulu-language weekly. In 1957, he joined Drum magazine, where he became highly critical of the repressive political system in the country. In 1964, he left the country to take up a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University in New York. He was offered only an "exit permit" and had to relinquish his passport. On 14 July 1965, living in exile and unable to return to his home country, he died by suicide—jumping from the seventh floor of a New York apartment.
Since 1997, a call has gone out to members of the public or institutions to submit nominations for the Nat Nakasa award. Media practitioners, such as journalists, editors, managers, or media owners, may be nominated. Ideal candidates must be someone who has shown integrity and reported fearlessly on events - someone who has resisted any form of censorship and has shown courage in making information available to the South African public.
Annually, two awards are made, one going to mainstream journalists, and another to persons operating in the community-media sector.
This year, the Nat Nakasa award for mainstream journalists went to two reporters of online publisher GroundUp, Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn. They were honoured for breaking the Thabo Bester prison escape story. They followed up on rumours that Bester had never died but had actually escaped from Mangaung Prison with the assistance of a doctor, Nandipha Magudumana. Because of these reports, Bester and Magudumana were apprehended in Tanzania nearly a year after the escape and brought back to South Africa, where they, along with officials at the prison who had allegedly helped them escape, are now on trial.
The Nat Nakasa award for courageous journalism in the community-media sector went to a stalwart in this industry, Anton van Zyl. Anton is a founding member of the Association of Independent Publishers and has been involved in projects to help develop the industry for several decades. He took ownership of the Limpopo Mirror and Zoutpansberger in 2000 and saw these newspapers, as well as its journalists, win several top accolades.
As a journalist, Anton also left his mark. Alongside Raymond Joseph of GroundUp, he exposed the corruption at the National Lotteries Commission. Their articles on fraudulent payouts, often to hijacked non-profit organisations, are generally accepted to have led to investigations such as those by the Special Investigation Unit. More than R2 billion of the funding that was supposed to assist poor communities is believed to have been stolen by criminals, including top-ranking officials, lawyers, and certain prominent members of society.
In the past few years, Anton has also made headlines for the fearless way the newspapers took on local municipalities. In 2020, they took the Makhado Municipality to court to force them to disclose details of a questionable property transaction. This case went to the High Court, where the municipality backed down and made the information available.
Anton believes, however, that real courage is not necessarily in publishing articles and exposing corruption. "That is partly our job and what is expected from us. I have huge admiration for the excellent investigative journalists in this country and for all the brave men and women who relentlessly pursue the truth. But in our industry, it takes courage to survive," he says.
Anton explains that small newspapers are disappearing at a rapid rate worldwide. "The people who study this phenomenon talk about news deserts. These are areas where residents have no access to local journalism. The local newspapers have gone out of business, and the very important messengers have simply disappeared," he says.
Multiple reasons exist why this is happening. The influx of national chain groups into the local economy created a distance between residents and the owners of the stores. Whereas local stores would support their local newspaper with advertising, the big groups would simply do a cost-per-thousand analysis and choose the cheapest possible option. The growth of social media and online marketplaces also took advertising money out of the local economy.
"It is incredibly difficult for any small publisher to survive, yet we must. If you lose local journalism, this is a terrible loss. Who will report on council meetings when no local newspaper exists anymore? Who will monitor the courts and report on criminals appearing? But worst of all, who will be left to write the obituary when a respected member of the community dies? It won't be Facebook or Google because they don't employ local journalists," says Anton.
Anton adds that he is extremely proud of and humbled by the Nat Nakasa award, but he also believes this is an acknowledgment of the work of a dedicated team. "The people behind each week's edition of the Limpopo Mirror and Zoutpansberger are true heroes. Together we defy the odds and we bring out newspapers, week after week, month after month, and year after year. That takes a lot of courage," he says.
During Saturday night's function, another Limpopo-based journalist, Dunisani Ntsanwisi, won the Stephen Wrottesley award for his service to the media industry. Dunisani is the owner of a Xitsonga newspaper, Nthavhela. Ntsanwisi has been a consistent advocate for the needs of community newspapers and has been heavily involved in leadership roles in both SANEF and the Association of Independent Publishers.