A journalist of Mirror, Nthambeleni Gabara, and three news presenters from Univen FM won municipal journalism prizes for best print and electronic reports in the news category. The winners were officially announced a week ago.

The competition, sponsored by the Consolidation of Municipal Transformation Programme (CMTP) through the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), is part of a municipal Journalism and Reporting training project and seeks to encourage coverage of municipal matters by local reporters.

The other community media groups who participated in the competitions are Makana municipality from the Eastern Cape and from the Kwadukuza municipality in Kwazulu-Natal.

According to Mr Shepi Mati from Idasa, the municipal journalism competition has an overall objective of promoting an accountable local government. He said that the prizes encourage the local reporters to improve their reporting standards about residents and their local government. “As Idasa we wish you all the best as you continue with your work reporting issues of our democratic local government in a fair and balanced way and with the view of empowering the citizens so that they can hold accountable those they have elected to represent them,” he said.

Prize winners from Univen FM are Abigail Mkhatshwa, Richard Livhalani Mmbi and Owen Muebi. According to Mmbi, winning the prize indicates that he is dedicated to improving the lives and knowledge of his audience on how the spheres of local government operate. “It also encourages those young people who are aspiring to pursue their careers in journalism, while at the station, it gives a clear message that if one works very hard, one will be recognised in this way,” he said.

Owen Muebi said that the award to him is a great achievement as it will encourage him to do more by ensuring that his reporting is aligned to making his audience understand the role of their local municipalities. “I am dedicating this award to my people in Duthuni, who always encourage me to work very hard,” he said.

Abigail Mkhatshwa promised her listeners more improved reports on local government and themselves. She said that the prize will take the station to greater heights.

According to Gabara, whose reporting on local government has been aimed at making residents hold their councillors more accountable, winning the prize indicates that Mirror is striving to ensure that its readers understand the local government finance and budgets. “Working as journalist at the municipal level is not an easy task, because the majority of people in the rural areas are illiterate, while at certain municipalities there is still a lack of professionalism by certain officials. This prize has just strengthen my morale of sympathising with the poor and the voiceless,” he said. Gabara added that, while he is dedicating the prize to his editor, Mr Wikus Lee, and his former political science lecturer at Tshwane University of Technology, Mr Levy Ndou, Mirror readers can expect to read more improved and balanced stories on local government.

The winners thanked the organisers and sponsors of the competition for recognising them.