A team of Mail & Guardian journalists have been lauded at seventh annual Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards held in Johannesburg tonight (April 9, 2008) in the South African Story of the Year.

Stefaans Brümmer, Sam Sole, Adriaan Basson, Zukile Majova, Nic Dawes, Pearlie Joubert and Matuma Letsoalo from Mail & Guardian submitted 32 pages of entries on Pikoli and Selebi winning themselves the accolade of South African Story of the Year, sharing in R15,000 of prize money and coveted Mondi Shanduka Golden Nibs.

This category seeks to honour agenda-setting and original journalism which contributes to society by giving new insight into the changing character of South Africa.

The judges summarised the team’s journalistic success in these words: “In a very complex and fast-moving story, with a myriad of detail and a fog of official machinations, the Mail & Guardian reporters succeeded in turning serious behind-the-scenes developments into a highly significant story within the public realm.”

Judges noted too that while the ANC’s conference at Polokwane in December was probably the most significant event of 2007, not many entries to the competition did justice to that story. They stated that if Thabo Mbeki’s election defeat was linked to claims that he used the state security organs against political opponents, then one of the nails in his coffin was his suspension of Vusi Pikoli, National Director of Public Prosecutions.

According to the judges, this apparent attempt to stop the Scorpions pursuing his ally, the then police chief Jackie Selebi, triggered huge anger within the ANC and was indisputably a factor in why the president lost control of the party.

Without the investigation of these background events by the Mail & Guardian team, said the judges, it is quite possible that Mbeki could have continued protecting Selebi without too much challenge on this score. The paper’s stories on Selebi’s many dubious connections, and then the suspension of Pikoli by Mbeki, helped set the national agenda, and had major political impact.

In the view of the judges, the constitutional separation of powers is at the heart of the story – and the Mail & Guardian pointed to inappropriate executive interference in the prosecution process.

The paper’s team was also commended for overcoming an apparent attempt to pre-empt their initial story on the Selebi link to the Pikoli suspension by digging out further detail about the ties between Selebi and Glenn Agliotti, and how the National Intelligence Agency and police had taken sides against the National Prosecution Agency.

Professor Guy Berger convened the panel and was joined by Salie de Swardt, Ivan Fynn, Alf Kumalo, Irwin Manoim, Phil Mtimkulu, Joyce Sikhakhane and Caroline Southey.

Previous winners of this award are Rob Rose (Business Day) and Sam Sole, Stefaans Brümmer, Nic Dawes and Zukile Majova (Mail & Guardian) in 2007, Susan Winters (The Witness) in 2006 and Wisani wa ka Ngobeni (Mail & Guardian) in 2005.