The journalists and guests in the room are welcomed by Takalani Netshitenzhe, Chief Officer Vodacom South Africa External Affairs, who reminds us that this is the first physical Vodacom Journalist of the Year in three years. #VJOY2022

Sitho Mdlalose, Vodacom South Africa MD takes over and comments that in a world where emojis and reels have become dominant means of communication, #VJOY2022 still received a record breaking 1700+ entries this year.

Convener Mapi Mhlangu, focuses on the theme of this year, which is 'Story Tellers' - and how our journalists are subjected to grief and devastation daily, but still manage to stay objective, honest and fighting for the underdogs with their story telling. #VJOY2022

The winner for the #VJOY2022 Lifestyle award is Charles Leonard of the New Frame Podcast for “Who’s the blues for?”, which chronicles the broad influence of this music genre in a compelling way that evokes the audience’s emotional experience.

Congratulations to Caryn Dolley from DM168 for “SA’s rare plants are being poached to extinction & the ecological nightmare is only getting worse”, which detailed the new green crime wave well, astonishing the audience with the quantities that poachers have bagged. #VJOY2022

Congratulations to Gauteng’s Shiraaz Mohamed of the Daily Maverick who captured the human tragedy within events with sensitivity, while respecting his subjects and deepend the truth that news pictures must portray. #VJOY2022

Well done to KwaZulu-Natal’s Nicky Troll for her Carte Blanche feature piece “Tactical Take Down”, which dealt with the growing trend of the criminalisation of key sectors of the country’s economy by well-oganised syndicates. #VJOY2022

The Innovation in Journalism Award goes to Gauteng’s Mamaili Mamaila of The Outlier. This category revolves around both novel techniques and technologies and finding new ways to tell a story so that it provides insights that were not possible before. #VJOY2022

Congratulations to the Opinion Award winner, Gauteng’s 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 ⚡️ of The Citizen News, who provided a deep analysis and emotions in communicating tragedy, loss and joy in his compelling winning works. #VJOY2022

The Live Reporting/Breaking News Award goes to KwaZulu-Natal’s Dasen Thathiah with his contributors of eNCA for their coverage of the KwaZulu-Natal floods. #VJOY2022

The VJOY Lifetime Achiever Award goes to renowned poet and author Dr Don Mattera, who died in July, at 86. Mattera used his words to shake the foundations of the Apartheid government, backed by an army, on a mission to oppress SA’s black majority. #VJOY2022

The 2022 Vodacom Journalist of the Year overall winner, claiming R100 000, is GroundUp’s Raymond Joseph, for his long-running investigation into the National Lotteries Commission and its recipients. #VJOY2022

#RoodepoortOutages Power is fully restored to customers who were affected #PennyvilleSub #Fleurhof #Davidsonville update 👇^DR

Hey friends 👋🏾 About two weeks ago, I realised I’d have to re-register to vote next year, so I used the online registration process. It took about 5 minutes to fill in the required info and upload a pic of my ID. Three days later, I got an SMS that I was successfully registered

GE and the prime contractor on the USS Gerald Ford near an agreement over who will pay for fixing defects in its propulsion systems trib.al/CCdLcYL

In honour of a great friend and mentor I will trek to Everest base camp in May to celebrate 20 Years since I stood on of the world and told the world that "African Can."

In order to vote in the upcoming elections, you need to register in advance before the election is proclaimed (published in the Government Gazette).   For more details on how to register visit: elections.org.za/content/For-Vo…   #FreedomMonth #ThuliMadonselaFoundation #VoterEducation

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In Progress.^TM