SANEF to announce winners of the Nat Nakasa Awards 2023
SANEF to announce winners of the Nat Nakasa Awards 2023
15 September 2023
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) will tomorrow, 16 September 2023, honour the 2023 Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism to winners at The Venue in Sandton, Johannesburg. The awards are sponsored by Sanlam for the seventh year running.
The awards will be addressed by Justice Zukisa Laura Lumka Tshiqi of the Constitutional Court. She is also aligned with organisations such as the Black Lawyers Association Legal Education Centre, the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges, the South African Judicial Education Institute, and the African Regional Judges Forum as a means of ensuring that the constitutional rights of all citizens are not violated.
In 2007, Justice Tshiqi was appointed as Acting Judge at the Competition Appeal Court, and in 2009, she was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal where she presided over many matters for 10 years prior to her appointment at the Constitutional Court in 2019. She is also a qualified trainer, facilitator, and mediator and she is a trainer on an ad hoc basis for the South African Judicial Institute.
The applications for the awards are adjudicated by a panel of four judges including former Press Ombudsman, Joe Thloloe, former editor of The Star, Peter Sullivan, Crystal Orderson, Al Jazeera’s producer (Freelance TV) & contributor of The Africa Report Magazine as well as former Sowetan political editor and founder of Vutivi Business News, Moipone Malefane.
These judges will award the Nat Nakasa Award for Community Media to deserving winners for their bravery in defending the community’s rights and demanding justice in their environment and local municipalities. They will then announce the overall winner Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism
Every year, SANEF also has an in-house Stephen Wrottesley Award for honouring dedicated members which will be given to a deserving, hardworking member.
Nat Nakasa was a man whose writing skills played a pivotal role in the liberation of South Africans. Nat’s legacy is celebrated every year by SANEF, through these awards. Nat died in New York, in 1965.
At the time he was on a one-way visa in the US, on a Nieman Scholarship, to escape threats to his life under the apartheid regime. SANEF, together with the Nakasa family and a range of stakeholders, worked tirelessly for years to bring back Nat’s remains and be reburied at his childhood suburb of Chesterville, outside Durban.
In 2014, his remains were returned to SA for reburial at the Chesterville cemetery Heroes Acres site, a fulfillment of his last wish to return home to the country where he was born. Nakasa paid a high price for his sacrifice.
Note to Editors:
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is a non-profit organisation whose members are editors, senior journalists, and journalism trainers from all areas of South African media. We are committed to championing South Africa’s hard-won freedom of expression and promoting quality, ethics, and diversity in the South African media. We promote excellence in journalism through fighting for media freedom, writing policy submissions, research, and education and training programmes. SANEF is not a union.
For more information please contact:
- Sbu Ngalwa – SANEF Chairperson (073) 404-1415
- Nwabisa Makunga – SANEF Deputy Chairperson (082) 555-1972
- Qaanitah Hunter – SANEF Secretary-General
- Tshamano Makhadi – Treasurer-General (082) 223 0621
- Makhudu Sefara – SANEF Media Freedom Chair (079) 177-2134
- Judy Sandison – SANEF KZN Convenor (082) 571-3334
- Dr. Glenda Daniels – SANEF Gauteng Convenor (083) 229-9708
- Rochelle De Kock – SANEF Eastern Cape Convenor (072) 969-8028
- Reggy Moalusi – SANEF Executive Director (071) 682-3695
