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First-ever blogger accreditation for Polokwane
For the first time in South Africa's history, a blogger will be accredited alongside journalists to blog about the ANC leadership succession conference to be held in Polokwane later this week. Blogger and author Ndumiso Ngcobo will be live-blogging the event, providing commentary, colour and behind-the-scenes reportage on the Mail & Guardian Online's Thought Leader group blog platform.
Ngcobo's blog, “The Silwane Files: Resident Zulu spear-chugger”, is where he blogs about issues that range from travel to race-relations. Ngcobo is also author of the book titled Some of My Best Friends Are White.
It's also the first time the Mail & Guardian has included a blogger in its team of print and online journalists that are set to cover the conference, says Riaan Wolmarans, editor of the M&G Online.
“A big news event like this can only be covered successfully both in print and online; and then, added to that, is blogging. It's a different way to observe the same event, and such perspectives are also valued by readers, as the success of Thought Leader has shown,” adds Wolmarans.
Watershed moment
Vincent Maher, the M&G Online strategist believes this is watershed moment in digital political news coverage in South Africa.
“We are seeing a recognition of the informal work that bloggers do in the country every day – reporting what they see. This type of citizen journalism has taken off elsewhere in the world but blogger coverage of political events has been weak in SA because access is normally reserved for the formal media,” says Maher.
ThoughtLeader.co.za has risen to the top position on local blog aggregator Amatomu.com (another M&G Online initiative launched earlier this year) rankings for news and politics and is currently ranked the third most popular blog in South Africa in the three months since its launch. It has attracted thinkers such as Steven Friedman, Ryland Fisher, Ronald Suresh Roberts and several other public intellectuals, including Bizcommunity.com's very own Chris Moerdyk.
Ngcobo's blog can be read at http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/silwane.
