The racist video that swept up the University of the Free State in a racial storm featured strongly at the regional Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards in Bloemfontein on Friday.
Five of the eleven awards related to the video, which was made by four students at the university’s Reitz men’s hostel. It sparked local and international outrage for a scene in which black employees at the university were shown eating food which had apparently been urinated upon by a white student.
The video depicts a mock initiation of five staff members into the hostel’s activities and refers to the university’s integration policy for campus residences.
Volksblad‘s Henry Cloete won in the print-news category while the paper’s Christo van Staden won the columnist award.
SAfm’s Solly Mphatso won in the broadcast category and eNews Prime Time‘s Charlene and Eddie Stanley won for their coverage of the Reitz affair.
Other winners were Anton Smith of Passi magazine and the Volksblad‘s cartoonist, Gavin Petersen.
Sake 24‘s Vida Booysen won the financial reporting category.
Cindè Greyling of Passi magazine took the sports-reporting award while Owen Kock won the radio-feature category.
Charlene and Eddie Stanley won the television-feature award for their 3rd Degree coverage of the hardships that South African farm workers and their children face.
The winners each received R7 500 and will compete in the national finals, which will be held on November 7 at the Sandton Sun. – Sapa