Idinga Lakho awarded at Group Editors Awards

GEORGE NEWS - Indinga Lakho with Zolani has won the third place in the category of the Best Regular Column during the Group Editors Award ceremony held at the Wilderness Hotel on Friday night, 23 November.

Idinga Lakho is a weekly column written by the Indinga editor, Zolani Sinxo.

In this column, Sinxo writes about a range of topics, sharing his opinions on local, national and international issues in the fields of politics, sport, social matters and the economy. One of the judges had this to say about Sinxo's columns: "Your columns and your writing are very powerful and the readers are left with a lot of food for thought. You have set a very high standard. Congratulations."

Sinxo said his writings are inspired by the everyday lives of ordinary South Africans, the strength to keep going forward regardless of what stands in the way. He is also inspired by the late journalist of the then Drum Magazine, Can Themba, who was a great storyteller and narrator.

"Thank you to my readers who continue to read and support Idinga, without whom I would never have achieved this award. I also thank Indinga sub-editor Liryke Ferreira whom I continue to learn a lot from. She has been a great help and as sub ensures that the columns are grammatically up to scratch," said Sinxo.

George Herald editor Lizette da Silva (left, with her award for best front page), Zolani Zinxo (3rd place in the best regular column category) and Group Editors Journalist of the Year Michelle Pienaar.

George Herald journalist Michelle Pienaar was one of the stars of the evening. She not only scooped up the Group Editors journalist of the year award, but also won the categories for best human interest story of the year, best news photographer, and best headline writer of the year. Pienaar also won two third places - in the categories best impact story and best hard news story.

Kristy Kolberg took the laurels in the best hard news story of the year category and was runner-up in the journalist of the year category. Kolberg also won the title of best news photographer and came second in the best sports photographer category.

Hugo Redelinghuys was named best sports photographer of the year, in which category he also took the third place.

Group Editors operations director Nicole Rimbault said in her speech that, while most newspaper groups around the world are retrenching staff and seeing a continuing drop in revenue, Group Editors has been extremely fortunate. "It has been difficult - there are challenges, but we continue to be the voice of our communities. Our brands, be it in print or digitally, are still recognised as the authoritative voice of each town."

Zolani Sinxo receives his award from Group Editors operations director Nicole Rimbault.