Call for entries for South Africa’s top journalism prizes
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is delighted to announce that entries for the 2025 edition of the Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards are officially open.
The deadline for submissions is Monday, 31 March 2025.
The awards, organised by SANEF, will celebrate journalistic excellence in stories published or broadcast between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024.
Please note that the submission deadline will not be extended due to the time-consuming adjudication process. Winners will be honoured at a prestigious event scheduled for June 2025, with the venue to be confirmed in Gauteng.
The Awards are designed to encourage and recognise outstanding journalistic work across South Africa. Over the years, these Awards have become a cornerstone of journalistic excellence, highlighting the critical contributions of the media to our democracy.
SANEF is proud to organise the Awards for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, having taken over from the Publishers’ Support Services (formerly PDMSA).
The Awards celebrate excellence across all media platforms, including print, online/digital and broadcast (radio and TV). They shine a spotlight on exceptional work in categories such as investigative reporting, feature writing, lifestyle journalism and photojournalism.
The Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards underscore the importance of groundbreaking, accurate, fact-based, truthful and fair reporting in an era where misinformation and disinformation pose significant challenges to the media landscape. They serve as a testament to the vital role of the Fourth Estate in safeguarding democracy.
Entries are invited from journalists across all platforms for the following categories:
- Hard news
- Indigenous language reporting in community media: This category has been refined to entail news articles/broadcasting clips that are the result of proactive reporter enterprise. It is distinct from breaking news and represents stories initiated by the newsroom. Entrants should submit journalistic work produced using any of South Africa’s indigenous languages across media segments particularly meant to speak to the community in which the journalists work.
- Community service reporting: This category has been remodelled to highlight hyper-local issues crafted from a community interest perspective, to inform, educate and build resilient communities by amplifying grassroots narratives that matter. These are general community features and creative journalism stories initiated to capture the depth of community sentiments and concerns. Qualifying entries must be journalistic work produced for and published exclusively on community media platforms, in all languages, and not in any commercial or publicly-owned news entities.
- Investigative journalism
- Business journalism
- Features: This category will now have two winners: one for print and online platforms, and another for broadcasting. This is after the judges proposed a split.
- Lifestyle
- Columns/Editorials
- Visual journalism (editorial cartoons/graphic layout)
- News photographs
- Feature photographs
- Sports photographs
- Manager/Publisher of the Year Award: Recognising exceptional newsroom managers and publishers for their contributions. Entries should include a motivation letter or supporting documents provided by colleagues.
- Juby Mayet Rising Star of the Year: Selected by the jury from category entries to honour emerging talent.
- Journalist of the Year: Selected by the jury from category entries for exemplary contributions to the field.
- The Allan Kirkland Soga/Standard Bank Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award: Celebrating sustained and extraordinary contributions to journalism by an individual who has demonstrated impeccable ethics and craft excellence.
Journalists and media professionals are encouraged to submit their entries by sending their documents to [email protected]. More information on the submission process and guidelines can be found here.
More information can be had from Dzudzie Netshisaulu – SANEF Co-ordinator-Administrator on [email protected]
