Knysna fires report earns The Herald team top award

A team of The Herald journalists has scooped a Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Award in the hard news category for their report on the Knysna fires.

The ceremony was held in Sandton on Thursday night.

The winners in the category were Yolande Stander, Lee Anne Butler, Angela Daniels, Gareth Wilson and Hendrick Mphande.

The story highlighted the hardship experienced by residents after the blazes left a trail of destruction in June 2017.

At least eight people were believed to have died – three in the Knysna area, one in Cape Town and four in Paarl – while hundreds of families were left homeless as deluges and runaway wildfires battered the coastline from the Cape peninsula to Port Elizabeth.

The Herald and Weekend Post editor Nwabisa Makunga said: “We are incredibly proud of this award.

“It is a recognition of the hard work that went into our coverage of a phenomenal story of loss, pain and grief.

“But also one that demonstrated, yet again, the triumphant spirit of South Africans. Well done to our team. You deserve it,” she said.

Former Daily Dispatch and current Sunday Times journalist Bongani Fuzile won the enterprise news category and was also named the overall journalist of the year.

Sunday Times photographer Esa Alexander won the feature photography award.