South Africa’s newest — and richest — journalism prize was on Thursday awarded to two investigative reporters of Beeld newspaper.
Adriaan Basson and Carien du Plessis walked away with the R200 000 Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism for an exposé on former prisons commissioner Linda Mti, a series of reports that led to the early departure of Mti as well as the Department of Correctional Services’ chief financial officer.
Despite being threatened with court action, the two journalists established a link between Mti and a company that won a dubious, multimillion-rand tender, and then proved that the tender document had been written by the company which won it.
The Mail & Guardian‘s investigate team of Sam Sole, Stefaans Brümmer, Zukile Majova and Nic Dawes — which won the Mondi Shanduka awards for best investigative journalism and story of the year on Wednesday evening — were recognised by the judges for its coverage of the links between police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, Glenn Agliotti and murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble.
Also recognised were the Sunday Tribune‘s Fred Kockott and Sibusiso Ngalwa for reporting on KwaZulu-Natal politicians sharing a national cattle herd among themselves and their spouses.
The M&G and Sunday Tribune teams share the second prize of R100 000.
The awards were born out of a partnership between the Valley Trust and the University of the Witwatersrand journalism programme’s workshop for investigative journalism.
The judges praised the range and scope of investigative journalism entered for the prize.
Judges’ convener Anton Harber, a founding editor of the M&G, said: ”If this standard of reporting continues, then we can rest assured that our democracy will be strengthened by the fact that those who abuse power and authority will face intense scrutiny and devastating exposure.
”Good investigative journalism is the piston in the engine of accountability, and the engine is firing.”