Hail, Witbank News!

Winners of Journalist of the Year, Photographer of the Year and Best Front Page of the Year

“Non sine pulvere palma” is and old Roman saying that means: The prize cannot be won without effort.
The winners at this year’s Oscar Frewin Awards collected prizes for their hard work and effort in 2014.
Several Greek gods, goddesses and Roman soldiers were seen at the awards evening on Thursday, October 8 at Mystical Mansions.

Zita Goldswain won the Journalist of the Year award.

Journalists and photographers of nine newspapers (WITBANK NEWS, Middelburg Observer, Streeknuus, Daller, Ridge Times, The Echo, Standerton Advertiser, Standerton Ibis and Highvelder) participated in this annual competition which this year was presented for the 32nd time. The hosts this year were WITBANK NEWS and Streeknuus from Bronkhorstspruit.

The Photographer of the Year title went to Trevor Aingworth.

“While the adjudicators had the difficult task to assess entries and to select winners, there was consensus that the reporters who practise their profession in Mpumalanga found their calling in life. As Aurelius said: “Everything, a horse, a vine, is created for some duty. Fort what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.”

The judges for the editorial part of the competition included Dr Pedro Diederichs, Dr Johann de Jager, Dr Lizette Odendaal, Dr Hilke Steenkamp, Willie Meyer and Sholain Govender-Bateman from the Department of Journalism at the Tshwane University of Technology.

Samantha Traill won the News and Portrait photography trophies.

The photography section of the competition was judged by well-known award winning photographer, Hennie Homann.
Team WITBANK NEWS did very well, scooping up the awards for Journalist of the Year (Zita Goldswain), Photographer of the Year (Trevor Aingworth) and Best Front Page of the Year.

Other results were as follows:

Editorial section

*Newspaper of the Year – second
*Headings – Samantha Traill (third) and Trevor Aingworth (second).
*Columns – Zita Goldswain (second).
*Local government – Zita Goldswain (first).
*Investigating reporting – Zita Goldswain (first).
*Sport – Trevor Aingworth (second)
*News – Fanisile Nkuna and Melissa Claassen (special mentions).
Photography section
*Photographer of the Year – Samantha Traill (second).
*News – Samantha Traill (first) and Zita Goldswain (second).
*Portraits – Samantha Traill (first and third).
*Feature – Samantha Traill (second) and Zita Goldswain (third).
*Sport – Trevor Aingworth (first and second).