Joe Thloloe named Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards lifetime achiever
After almost 50 years in the media, veteran journalist Joe Thloloe has been awarded the Alan Kirkland Soga Lifetime Achiever accolade in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to newspaper journalism in South Africa.
The current South African Press Ombudsman was applauded for the role he has played in the industry at the eighth annual Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards in Johannesburg on Wednesday, May 6.
"This year the award was renamed after Soga, a historic editor from the late 19th century whose credo was, ‘Gainst the wrong that needs resistance; for the good that lacks assistance'," said chief judge Professor Guy Berger.
"Thloloe's life personifies this motto. He is possibly the most respected South African journalist and a professional with an unparalleled wealth of courage, compassion and commitment that dates back almost 50 years in the media."
Thloloe has worked for The World, Rand Daily Mail, Golden City Post and Drum magazine, and is a former deputy editor of Sowetan. He was also editor in chief of both SABC News and e.tv News.
A journalist in the apartheid struggle, he was convicted for his part in the 1960 Anti-pass Campaign that led to the Sharpeville Massacre, detained for four months in 1976 following the students' uprising of that year; detained in 1977 for 18 months under the Terrorism Act; banned in 1981 for three years under the Suppression of Communism Act; and detained, tried and jailed for 19 months between 1982 to 1984.
Thloloe is a former chairman of the South African Editors' Forum, deputy chairman of the Southern African Editors' Forum and president of the Union of Black Journalists and Media Workers Association of South Africa. In 1988, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
Other recipients of this lifetime achievement honour include the late Dr Aggrey Klaaste, David Hazelhurst, Raymond Louw and Mathatha Tsedu.
