Independent Newspapers journos scoop key Mondi awards

The Star journalists Jonathon Ancer and Solly Maphumulo won the Breaking News category for 'Too dirty to live', a story of a sick and homeless man left to die by paramedics. Ancer was also a finalist for a report about the fate of the San people in the Northern Cape.

Photographer Neo Ntsoma took the Feature Photographer category for 'The toughest women in Africa', a series of pictures of the first female intake into the SAPS' Special Task Force. She dedicated her award to Mndeni Vilakazi, The Star photographer who died in a taxi smash a week ago. The Star's Steve Lawrence was also a finalist in the News Photographs category for 'The strong arm of the law', a picture taken during a police arrest.

Jeremy Gordin, aka 'Karen Bliksem', won the Creative Journalism category for his eponymous column in Sunday Independent.

Commenting on the successes, Independent Newspapers editorial director Moegsien Williams said, "Solly Maphumulo - who won the Breaking News category with Jonathon Ancer - and Neo Ntsoma have struck a tremendous blow for women in our newsrooms. We are particularly proud of Solly, who only recently joined The Star's full-time staff after a period of internship. She's a young, hardworking reporter with a fantastic future," said Williams.

"The 12 to 14-hour days regularly worked by Ancer paid off. He has emerged as one of the most elegant writers on daily newspapers, no matter whether stories are hard news or features. Neo has excelled once again. She has now established herself, after winning the CNN photography award last year, as one of the country's most exciting and foremost photographers.

"My congratulations also go to Jeremy Gordin. As a senior writer in the Independent group, he is a regular contributor to The Star."

Independent News and Media's CEO Tony Howard and executive director operations Nazeem Howa received special awards to become Print Media Fellows for their contributions to the newspaper industry.

Other winners were:
• Analysis, follow-ups and commentary: Johann Maarman of Rapport.
• Feature writing: L Susan Winters of Daily Dispatch.
• Graphical journalism: Anton Vermeulen of Naweek-Beeld and Jonathon 'Zapiro' Shapiro.
• News photographs category was Sharief Jaffer of Rapport.
• Story of the year: Wisani wa ka Ngobeni of Mail & Guardian.
• Lifetime achiever award: Posthumously to Dr Aggrey Klaaste, former editor of Sowetan.