Seasoned media professionals join K and K Media Group

Tabelo Timse, Deshnee Subramany, and Busisiwe Kunene

Timse is an award-winning investigative journalist at amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, where she worked on the #Guptaleaks. She also exposed local government corruption and fuel theft syndicates, among other investigations.

She was at amaBhungane for 10 years after covering the SADC region for Agence France-Presse (AFP) for two years.

A Journalism Master’s degree graduate from Nelson Mandela University, Timse began her career as a TV reporter and radio current affairs producer at the SABC. She then went on to work at The Herald and Weekend Post newspapers in Port Elizabeth as a general reporter.

In 2018, Timse won the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Politics category, for her work on two whistleblowers who tried to expose corruption linked to the Guptas’ Estina dairy project in Vrede, Free State.

Also in 2018 she was part of the team that won the Taco Kuiper Investigative Journalism award for their work on the #Guptaleaks.

In 2021, Timse was awarded the French-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law as recognition of her tireless efforts and the work of amaBhungane to advance the cause of the rule of law, social justice, and the strengthening of participatory governance in South Africa. She also conducts media and journalism training programmes at places such as the Thomson Reuters Foundation (London) and The Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ).

The new editor-at-large, Subramany has been in the media industry for over 15 years, specialising in digital media. She has headed award-winning digital teams throughout her career.

Subramany cut her teeth in the digital space at Primedia Broadcasting's Eyewitness News before she moved on to the Mail & Guardian, working at first as a sub-editor and later as day editor for its digital platform, mg.co.za.

She has joined numerous newsrooms in various companies, such as Business Day at Arena Holdings, HuffPost at Media24 (news editor), and she was digital lead at investigative journalism organisation amaBhungane.

She most recently returned to Eyewitness News as digital editor of the brand, where she was responsible for maintaining the website’s strong presence among competitors.

Subramany has also worked in TV, producing and building audiences for The Big Debate on SABC, as well as eNCA’s primetime shows.

Kunene has been in the media industry for 16 years having started as a direct sales representative at Media24 for City Press and Rapport. She moved to TNA Media before she joined Mail & Guardian as a sales executive.

An opportunity to spread her wings into the radio space arose and she joined MSG Group Sales as sales executive to be then promoted as a sales manager for Government Portfolio. Before joining K and K Media, she was with Motswako Media Sales where she was sales executive for You FM.

Her experience has led her to manage campaigns mostly in the public sector portfolio handling national, provincial and local government including state owned entities.

Matuma Letsoalo, executive chairperson and founder of K and K Media Group, said: “The three new appointees bring a wealth of experience from various journalism disciplines, including multiple digital products. They each have a track record of building strong teams and excellent systems.
We are excited to have Tabelo, Deshnee and Busisiwe as part of the team to help solidify Inside Education [both print and digital], Inside Politics and Inside Metros as premium brands for education, politics, business and local news in the country.

Last month, K and K Media Group announced the appointment of veteran journalist Edwin Naidu as editor-in-chief of Inside Education quarterly print publication that is distributed to over 24,800 schools across the country, all universities and TVET colleges.