/ 16 September 2016

M&G announcement: Beauregard Tromp appointed deputy editor

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The Mail & Guardian is proud to announce that it has appointed Beauregard Tromp as its deputy editor and moved Sipho Hlongwane to a more central role in the newsroom as comment and analysis editor.

Beauregard joined the M&G in January as news editor, during an overhaul of the publication after editor-in-chief Verashni Pillay joined in October 2015, and Sipho joined shortly afterwards as supplements editor.

The publication has since gone from strength to strength, attracting top talent and showing year-on-year growth in its ABC circulated results every consecutive quarter this year.

Beauregard has been a big part of this success in his role as news editor, crafting the publication’s news section to be bold and compelling with in-depth features, enterprise journalism and news breaks. Sipho, in turn, has excelled in his role and brought fresh ideas and innovation to the supplements team and become increasingly more involved in the central leadership of the newsroom.

“Beauregard has from the get-go taken on a larger leadership role in the newsroom,” said Verashni. “It is a privilege to have him as deputy and Sipho on board as a more senior presence in the newsroom. We’re looking forward to rolling out more plans and constantly improving the Mail & Guardian.”

Sipho was named Best Youngster at the 2012 Bookmarks Awards. He is a published author, columnist and reporter by training and has covered some of South Africa’s most vivid protest marches, wildcat strikes and press conferences. He has built an impressive profile as a journalist and commentator. As someone who first made his name on the M&G’s Thought Leader blogging platform as a student, it is gratifying that he is coming full circle to lead the entire comments division at the M&G.

Beauregard boasts an enviable track record as a journalist.

He has covered conflicts and wars in countries including Burundi, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt and his native South Africa. A 2013 Nieman Fellow, Tromp is a past winner of African Journalist of the Year as well as South African Journalist of the Year. A visiting Knight Professor at the University of Miami, he helped lead a team of multimedia journalists documenting 20 years of democracy in South Africa. More recently he was singled out for his coverage of xenophobic violence in South Africa, where he produced a series detailing the historical and contemporary social events leading up to the brutal killing of a Mozambican national. He is currently working with the 19 Million Project to identify innovative, tangible interventions to assist with the migrant “crisis”. 

Tromp is the co-author of the bestselling biography of iconic freedom fighter Chris Hani. Reporting for both newspapers and television, his work has appeared in Independent Newspapers titles and the pan-African e-news Africa television station.

Beauregard and Sipho will start in their positions as soon as their replacements are in place.