Madam Deputy Speaker, the ANC welcomes the recent awarding of the Nat Nakasa Award to Mr Joe Thloloe for media integrity. This award is handed out annually by Print Media SA, the SA National Editors' Forum, Sanef, and the Nieman Society in recognition of journalists who showed integrity and reported fearlessly, displaying a commitment to serve the people of South Africa.
Thloloe, who is currently the Press Ombudsman, formerly served as Sanef chairperson, as deputy chairperson of the South African Editors' Forum, and as president of the Union of Black Journalists and the Media Workers' Association of South Africa. He has had an illustrious career in journalism, spanning five decades. He was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 1998 and former editor-in-chief at both SABC news and e-tv. Joe Thloloe was also the recipient of the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver from President Zuma in April this year for his contribution and achievements in journalism.
The Nat Nakasa Award was named after Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa, a South African journalist who died in exile in 1965 at the age of 28. Nakasa's writing was critical of the repressive apartheid government. When he was awarded the Nieman fellowship to study journalism at Harvard University in 1964, the apartheid regime rejected his application for a passport. He later died in exile and was buried in New York. There are plans to bring his remains back to Durban. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
