By our Staff Reporter
The journalists writing for the Limpopo Mirror are ranked among the top in the country in their respective fields. This was proven again last Friday when the Vhembe-based journalists won several of the writing categories during the annual awards ceremony of the Forum of Community Journalists (FCJ).
The awards ceremony was held at the Birchwood Hotel & Conference Centre in Boksburg and was attended by representatives of community newspapers from across the country. The master of ceremonies was well-known veteran TV news anchor and media guru Jeremy Maggs.
The Limpopo Mirror won the prize as the best independently owned local newspaper in the country. The newspaper also won the Best Front Page category for independent newspapers.
The judges' comments on Limpopo Mirror were very flattering: "Strong, well-written stories. Good reporting, really being a watchdog for the local community. A judge's favourite. Lovely read. A testament of a local newspaper who is the watchdog of its community."
However, the various writing categories were the ones where the journalists from the far northern part of the country showed their mettle. Here, unlike in the newspaper categories, journalists must compete against hundreds of other journalists from across the country, most of whom work for the big publishing groups.
In the Hard News category, the Limpopo Mirror and its sister paper, the Zoutpansberger, scooped up three of the top five positions. Andries van Zyl, editor of the Zoutpansberger, won the category, while Maanda Bele was third and Kaizer Nengovhela fifth.
"Strong stories covering important local issues," was the judges' comment on Andries's entries. "Good writer. He is not bound by one type of reporting and he does thorough work. Some excellent examples of international and national developments applied to a local context."
Maanda Bele also received praise from the judges. "Persistent coverage of issues, such as the taxi rank story, nice to look into the issue after a decade of standing empty. Shocking but strong story about the students and prostitution. The lady who makes bricks is a great story, showing how residents make plans in the face of adversity!"
The Investigative Journalism category was again won by Limpopo Mirror's Anton van Zyl. He has won this category on several previous occasions, specifically for the exposés done on corruption at the National Lotteries Commission. "Very strong stories, the lottery corruption and municipal park corruption stories go to the core of maladministration in some local municipalities. Excellent investigative work that seems to have made a national impact," the judges commented.
Andries van Zyl showed his versatility by ending second in the Sports-writing category. He was fifth in the Investigative Journalism category and seventh in the Human Interest category.
Anton van Zyl, who also manages the two newspapers, was extremely proud of the team's achievements. "It shows once again that you don't have to be big to count. Even though we don't have the resources of the big publishers, we can still make a difference in the way we reflect what is happening in our community."
Anton was especially impressed with the achievements in the Hard News category. "For one publishing company to have three of the top five finalists in this category is incredible. This is what news is all about – to reflect what is happening in your community. If you consider that two of the journalists stay in and report from deep rural areas, the achievements are so much more special," he said.
Anton was full of praise for the team responsible for producing the newspapers. "Publishing is a team effort. News starts with a reporter picking up on a story. From there it goes through a process of sub-editing, fact checking and constant re-writing. The news then gets packaged, with a design team making sure that it eventually appears in an easy-to-read format. It goes onto our digital platform and then you have the printing and distribution processes," he said.
"And finally – you cannot produce good journalism if no-one pays the journalists. This is where our advertising team plays such an important role in making sure that revenue streams in to pay the bills," he said. He also thanked the advertisers for their support and all the regular readers who make sure that they never miss an edition of their favourite newspaper.