The Zimbabwe Independent‘s news editor, Dumisani Muleya, has been awarded the Free Press Africa Award at the CNN MultiChoice African Journalists Awards 2006 for his series of stories revealing the covert takeover of three privately owned newspapers by Zimbabwe’s intelligence services.
Daily Mirror photographer Desmond Kwande scooped the Mohamed Amin Photographic Award for his snaps of victims of Operation Murambatsvina, the botched urban clean-up programme that left an estimated 700 000 people homeless, according to the United Nations.
The two journalists received their awards at a ceremony in Mozambique last Saturday.
Anna Umbima, in her citation on Kwande’s work, said: ”The particular photo that took our attention is of a man sitting on his bed, with a few scant possessions around him and devastation everywhere. The home that he once had [is] gone. I think what makes it even more poignant is a child next to him, almost oblivious to this destruction.
”It leaves you thinking: Where did that family go that night and where are they now? When you look at this man sitting on this bed, there is a look of total hopelessness on his face. It leaves you thinking — what is the future for this family? But then what is the future for Zimbabwe?”
Muleya, winner of several international awards, was in the running for the prestigious CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year 2006.
That award was won by Nigerian Shola Oshunkeye for his story ”Niger’s graveyard of the living”, on the famine in Niger.
However, Muleya still won the Free Press Africa Award for his investigative work on a publicly funded takeover of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Financial Gazette newspapers by the Central Intelligence Organisation.
The scandal is now commonly referred to as ”Mediagate” in Zimbabwe.
At least 1 530 journalists from 43 African countries entered for the awards.
Chris Cramer, MD of CNN International, said: ”This year has been no exception in unearthing a wealth of voices, some old, some new, from around Africa, each with a compelling story to tell, and each demonstrating a quality of journalism, and in some cases a resourcefulness and bravery in pursuing the story in the first place, and that’s my deepest admiration.”
The CNN African Journalist of the Year Award was founded in 1995 by Edward Boateng (formerly African regional director for Turner Broadcasting System, CNN’s parent company) and the late Mohamed Amin to recognise and encourage excellence in journalism throughout Africa.