Along with the category winners of the ninth annual Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards, the winners in the special categories of South African Story of the Year and South African Newspaper Journalist of the Year were recognised for excellence in newspaper journalism at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 5 May.

“South Africa at this juncture arguably needs quality information more than ever, and the country’s newspapers are living up to the challenge of delivering it,” says Panel Convenor, Prof Guy Berger, Head of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University.

He added that readers need look no further than at the work of two journalists who won this year’s Awards for South African Story of the Year and the South African Journalist of the Year. “These are outstanding contributors to the citizenry’s right to know, and they have picked up expertly on major trends that underly much of what is happening in South Africa.”

Gcina Ntsaluba of the Daily Dispatch clinched the 2009 Mondi Shanduka South African Story of the Year for the story, ‘Broken Homes’.

The South African Story of the Year was certainly about delivery – or, as represented by this story, non-delivery. Gcina Ntsaluba’s investigation into low-cost housing construction tenders in the Eastern Cape used the best of traditional journalistic methods to investigate at firsthand the delivery of sub-standard housing and its impact on the communities. In nine weeks, and over visits to seven towns, Ntsaluba documented a litany of dodgy deals.

The human side was brought home with the revelation that one shoddily-built home had collapsed and killed a 13-year-old. In bringing the voices of often marginalised rural citizens to mainstream newspapers, Ntsaluba produced a story that had impact beyond the borders of the Eastern Cape. It led to intervention by the Minister of Human Settlements and a visit from the Parliament’s Housing Portfolio Committee.

Though a local story, this coverage also speaks volumes for the nation at large. It is about an issue that is very close to people’s needs. The articles were both well-researched and told in a comprehensive and compelling manner. To understand many of the dynamics in South Africa in 2009, and not least the scores of service delivery protests, one need look no further than this story as a cameo of a national crisis.

Stephan Hofstatter was named as the 2009 Mondi Shanduka South African Newspaper Journalist of the Year for various articles including ‘The real trouble with land reform’ in The Weekender and ‘Fat cats milk R100-m fund’ in the Sunday Times.

The judges were highly impressed with his entries, noting that "this corpus highlights the quality of Hofstatter’s work." They added that Hofstatter revealed himself as an outstanding journalist, with a masterly command of the craft, and adding significant value to significant topics. “Readers can only benefit from the elucidation in his output,” they said.

“His style of writing is simple and straight forward. He packs his reports with detail which, while presented unemotionally and without subjective tilting, can bring gasps of understanding from the reader. He provides the facts; the reader is left with the conclusions that can be drawn.

“In Hofstatter’s land reform piece, he provides a fascinating yet compact analysis of land reform, reflecting a wide range of perspectives in it – including workers; owners; and experts. This piece was thus especially strong on multi-sourcing and giving all views a hearing (even those that disagreed with the main thrust of the analysis). It was well-written – and it flows nicely, which can be difficult with such a complex subject. The article demonstrates a depth of insight which can only come from having spoken to as many people as possible.

“The article on 'Fat Cats' covered the complexity of an emerging scandal at the Land Bank. It provides a lot of really good detail, demonstrating reporting acumen and highly effective story-telling talent. Hofstatter’s other submissions were also of high quality.”