City Press journalists win at The Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards

Convening Judge Mathatha Tsedu says, "Unlike the 2018 winners of the Investigative Journalism category, Gupta Leaks, a collaboration between journalists from the Daily Maverick, Amabhungane and News 24, which dominated the category last year, this year there were a variety of entries in this category up for the award. There was a lot of discussion at the judging session around the entries in the category." 

The VBS entry came out at the top because the journalists not only broke the story, but then stayed with it, Tsedu says. "From the breaking of the story, throughout the scandal unfolding, their story never changed or backtracked — unlike others who came into the story at a later stage," Tsedu adds. 

"It is critical that we are both senior journalists because doing stories like this comes with experience. It required a lot of time and tenacity. We started this in 2016." says Masondo.

The duo says that Masondo's investigative skills and van Rensburg's background in business journalism helped them to break the story. "We just knew we had to carry ongoing. When we found something unexplained, we had to find what explained it," says van Rensburg.

Both say the story became more difficult as they went along. "You have to know what the crime is, and then, in this case, you need to follow the money, which was very difficult as we had to source bank statements and then know what we were looking for," van Rensburg adds.

Rosetta Msimango, a photographer at City Press who focuses on human rights advocacy and social issues, was named Upcoming/Rising Star. "Having experienced gender-based violence personally, I cover stories close to my heart, and I hope by telling these stories that my work will make a difference," says Msimango. 

The Allan Kirkland Soga Lifetime Achiever Award was awarded to Robin Comley, who was picture editor of The Star for the years during South Africa's transition to democracy. 

Tsedu says that overall the entries for this year were good. "The news pictures, hard news and features were very good. This event provides journalists with introspection of the work being done in the field," he concludes. 

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