Two of the Mail & Guardian‘s journalists, John Matshikiza and Thebe Mabanga, were recognised at Vodacom’s Journalist of the Year awards.
Matshikiza shared his prize in the Specialist Print Category with the Cape Times‘s Melanie Gosling. The judges commended his opinion column as interesting, challenging and insightful reading.
Mabanga was the winner of the Editor’s Choice Award for South Africa’s most promising young journalists who have been in the business for less than five years.
He joined the M&G two years ago as a freelancer straight from university. Though he is only 24 he has become a stalwart in the M&G‘s newsroom.
Vodacom will sponsor him for a three-month study break at the Thompson Foundation in Wales.
”This is a reward not just for talent and effort, but also for a paper that has had the vision to offer me a solid and unrestricted platform,” Mabanga said.
M&G editor Mondli Makhanya said the awards were further proof that the M&G remained ”the reservoir of journalistic talent and the home of excellent writing”.