Edward Tsumele to edit CityLife magazine

click to enlarge

Tsumele, who resigned from Sowetan at the end of June, has a post graduate honours degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently studying for a Bachelor of Philosophy Honours in Marketing Management at the Institute of Marketing Management (IMM).

His association with Sowetan dates back to 1998, when he started writing for the newspaper soon after training as a journalist at Pretoria Technikon (now Tshwane University of Technology). He was mentored by the late veteran entertainment journalist Elliot 'Bra E" Makhaya, who for a long time was entertainment editor at Sowetan. After a few shifts in the corporate sector, he rejoined Sowetan in November 2006 where he has spent nearly six years as a senior arts and entertainment writer.

As a dedicated arts writer, specialising in a wide range of arts writing, ranging from theatre criticism, writing features on SA film, dance, television, music, radio, and literature, his work has appeared in such publications as the Sunday Independent, City Press, New African and New Africa Analysis (both based in London). He has been interviewed on both radio and television on SA arts and entertainment issues, including on SABC1, e.tv, SAFM, Radio 2000 and Metro FM.

He was nominated as a finalist for the 2007 Arts Correspondent of the Year Category by the Arts and Culture Trust (Act), currently sits on the board of the South African Arts Writers and Critics' Association (SAAWCA), whose mandate among others, is to improve the level of arts writing and criticism among arts journalists and mentors up-and coming journalists who wish to pursue a career as arts writers.

Serious about art

"I am thankful to Sowetan and other publications, which have featured my work on arts over the years and for the opportunities they have given me.

"In the past eight years or so, South African mainstream newspapers in particular, and globally in general, have come under tremendous pressure, competing to recapture continuously dwindling circulation figures, due to the advent of the internet. In this fight for the elusive circulation figures, unfortunately space has increasingly become scarce and the biggest casualty is arts coverage in newsrooms.

"Even in situations where mainstream newspapers continue to retain reasonable space for arts coverage, such space is often reserved for artistically inconsequential trivia such as celebrity gossip and scandals, to an extent that it is so difficult today to get an answer to questions such as: What is the most interesting book on the market? What is the most interesting theatrical production on stage at the moment? Which South African movie should one go and watch at cinema? Which music CD is worthy your rand on the market? Today almost every average South African knows who Khanyi Mbau is, but they do not know what exactly it is that she does for a living," says Tsumele.

"Discerning readers want answers to those substantive questions and this is the reason an arts publication such as CityLife and others rightly exist, to plug those gaps that have been left by the mainstream media in the world of the arts."

Tsumele says he will continue to write for mainstream publications on a freelance basis.