All South African journalists nominated took home trophies handed out at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Kenya, Nairobi on Saturday night where the Burkinabé journalist Hyacinthe Boowurosigue Sanou won the top prize as the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year.
Photojournalist Herman Verwey from the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld in South Africa won the Mohamed Amin Photographic Award for his photos of the murder trial of the paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius.
"When you look at Herman Verwey's work, for a second, you can wonder... the characters are so full of life, these pictures really give you a sense of their feelings. Herman's body of work gives also a proper idea of the high pressure that surrounded this trial, so important for the South African society," said the judges.
Sarah Wild writing for the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa won the Technology & Innovation reporting Award for her story Robot to test health of ocean 'lungs'.
Julie Laurenz and Jacqueline Jayamaha working freelance for the e.tv TV channel in South Africa won in the Features Award category for their harrowing profile piece, Viola's Hope, about a mother addicted to woonga, the cut-price heroin spliced with household products.
Hyacinthe Boowurosigue Sanou was awarded the overall CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Award for his story 'Room 143' which was published in the Burkinabé daily newspaper L'Observateur Paalga and covered the ousting of Blaise Campaore, who had ruled over Burkina Faso for 27 years.
The enterprising journalist was clever and booked a room in the hotel in room 143 to snoop as his feature article took readers to the night before when members of parliament attempted to win sufficient support to extend Campaore's term and met in the hotel.
The CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Awards 2015 brought the previous years' winners together on stage for the 20th year and contained a beautiful retrospective insert looking back at how the continent's "Oscars for journalism" has grown over the past two decades.
It will be broadcast on AfricaMagic World (DStv 155) on 17 October with presenters Zain Asher from CNN International and Mark Masai from Kenya's NTV.
Source: Channel24 via News24Wire
