Languages: 
A WSU journalism graduate’s sharp pen strokes saw him winning the county’s most coveted sports journalism award, thanks to a stellar body of work produced over the 2023 sports season.
The 17th annual South African Sports Awards were hosted by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture at the Sun City Superbowl in the North West on 5 May.
The evening proved to be a night of reckoning for Mdanstane-born sports journalist, Khanyiso Tshwaku, as he outperformed some of his most revered counterparts to walk away with this year’s “Sports Journalist of the Year “ award.
Tswaku, a News24 sports senior journalist who graduated in 2011 from the university’s esteemed journalism department in East London, repaid his employer’s trust, belief and investment in him by staving off serious competition from the likes of Newzroom Afrika sports editor Vaylen Curtley, and Sihle Ndebele, a sports reporter at the Sowetan, to win the ultimate prize.
“It remains a weird feeling because I’ve never written to win awards, I’ve always written to inform, educate and sometimes, entertain. I still derive great satisfaction in writing stories that make a difference in people’s lives or change them because I still see journalism as not just a tool of accountability, but an agent of change and betterment,“ he said.
In a modest take, Tshwaku said he suspected the reason for his winning the award was due to his versatility and consistency in churning out exceptional stories not only in his favoured sports of rugby and cricket, but also other sporting disciplines that would require extraordinary commitment.
he places great emphasis and appreciation for his time in the narrow grey passages of the WSU journalism department, describing his academic experience as “foundationally sound“.
“The most important lessons I learnt at varsity was discipline, fairness, objectivity, and adherence to the press code. These virtues were drilled into us religiously in all our three years at Heritage Site and they’ve always stayed with me. I also made some very good memories and I still remain friends with most of my classmates and those I went to school with, “ reminisced Tshwaku.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup, the 2022 End-Of-Year Bok Tour to the northern hemisphere, and the 2016 Comrades Marathon, for which he won the “Comrades Marathon Journalist of the Year“ award, rank as some of his greatest highlights in a career spanning almost 15 years.
Ever-modest, Tshwaku concludes: “What matters for me is mostly the internal awards I get, like a shout-out for an excellent story in a week for such small awards remain significant in keeping one going.
By Thando Cezula
