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The pens and mics of WSU’s most decorated journalism graduates have not only served to expose the most sensational of scandals, but more importantly, they’ve restored parity in the justice system and led to real and tangible change in society.
One such story was covered by Sunday Times multi-award winning journalist Sabelo Sikiti in 2016 about a paralyzed man from the Eastern Cape who was defrauded by an unscrupulous lawyer in a multi-million Road Accident Fund pay-out.
Though he’s laid bare some of the country’s worst kept secrets in recent South African history, some of which are a subject to on-going criminal cases and interrogation of a commission, Sikiti highlights this “lowly” tragic story as the one which carries most significance to his journalism career due to its deep impact.
“The story came to us in December of 2015 via a heart-wrenching letter sent by fax. Stories and ideas had dried up so I thought I might as well take this story up and do a little exposé about how this lawyer stole Christmas,” said Sikiti.
The story turned out to be a massive success as more people who were owed money by the lawyer came out of the woodwork and would eventually, thanks to the exposé, get their settlements.
The exposé has indeed also had a material impact on the young man, who eventually received his settlement and has since made sound property investments, gone to school and bought himself a car.
“That young man’s dignity has been restored and he’s now enjoying his independence and living his dream,” concluded Sikiti.
Multi-award-winning journalist Msindisi Fengu, who graduated in 2007, has also etched his name in WSU journalism department folklore following his 2012 Daily Dispatch exposé titled “Hostels of Shame” which investigated the conditions of some of the hostels housed across numerous schools in the Eastern Cape.
He says following the exposé, the provincial education department was immediately responsive and visited all the hostels in question to assess their condition.
“Thanks to this story, the department repaired some of the hostels while also making a decision to build hostels in other schools that were in need,” said Fengu.
Gleeful in his reminiscence, Fengu chronicles the extensive travelling, meticulous planning and in-depth investigative skill that was required to pull off that “once-in-a-lifetime” exposé, and the subsequent accolades and exposure that followed.
Beyond just winning awards, the story opened up doors for him which saw him participating in the CNN Fellowship Program where he received rigorous training in all this journalism.
Effervescent 2014 graduate Busisiwe Jemsana-Mantashe, who became a household name as a SABC TV News reporter for almost five years, cites a story laden with utter despair and hopelessness as one that stands out in her career.
The circumstances of Mantashe’s story choice are a cocktail of misery – statelessness, homelessness, hunger, disease, poverty and lack of education.
“This story was of a family of six representing three generations that lived close to a tipping yard on the outskirts of East London. Poverty reigned supreme as the family was suffering from malnutrition, one of the children was HIV-positive, the grandchildren dropped out of school, they couldn’t get access to social grants because they didn’t have any form of identification,” she said.
Clearly still affected by that story, Mantashe narrates a dire situation that had the family rummaging through leftovers dumped at the tipping yard in search of food.
“Following our coverage we were able to get social development involved and they were able to organize food parcels for the family. The home affairs department also played their part by providing the family with the necessary identity documents. We literally changed people’s lives, and that’s what journalism is about” she said.
The benevolence continued as good Samaritans, upon hearing of these tragic circumstances, banded together and built a home for the family.
Another one of the country’s most iconic stories, penned by BTech journalism graduate and former Daily Dispatch writer Siphe Macanda, was the investigative piece into procurement irregularities involving a multi-million-rand sanitation tender in the Eastern Cape.
“Critical to that story was for me to expose the power people enjoy and influence they have when they have the right political connections. This is of course undesirable as it discriminates and disempowers other competitors because of irregular procurement procedures,” said Macanda.
He says following the exposé, the appropriate department and section 9 institution instituted their own investigations and corroborated the evidence as reported by the paper.
He says a lot of taxpayer’s money was saved and a lot of inadequate workmanship was exposed in thanks to the investigation.
“Those series of articles earned me a lot of prestigious accolades, including the Standard Bank Sikuvile Award for Best Investigative Journalist, as well as being runner up at the Taco Kuiper Awards, which are the most prestigious awards in the country. I wouldn’t be here today had it not been for WSU training and honing my skills as a journalist,” said Macanda.
